Blue Eyed Demon
by Aleksei Volken
Summary: AU Future is not as bright as expected but human nature keeps as dark as always. In a modern and obscure city two women share a lot more than they imagine. This is their story, the destiny that brought them together and their search for hope FateNum/Yuri
1. Let s Get Blue

Hi there! This is my first original MSLN in English.

Just recently, I realized that there are very, very few multichapter stories about Fate and Signum together. So, since they are my most favorite characters in MSLN, I decided to go for it. This idea has been bugging in my mind for some time so…it is time to let it grow and see how it goes.

This story will try not be OcC and keep the character personalities on canon. Signum is a great and awesome character and I have tried to imagine how she will be as a modern warrior not linked to a master, not being forced to obey or to serve someone else. This will be the portrait I have in my mind for that.

I should say that the main character on this story will be Signum but Fate will also have a protagonist role. Other MSLN characters with strong presence as well.

This is an Alternative Universe. A futuristic one, with no magic involved. In the upcoming chapter a bit of the history background will be told.

In a not so near future, earth had become a wild and dark place to live. In one of the brand new cities that have arisen from ruins of a schismatic era, two women that share a lot more than they imagine are confronted with each other. This future is not as bright as expected but human nature keeps as dark as always. The story of two women, the destiny that brought them together and their search for hope.

Please consider English is not my native language and this version is unbetaed. I appreciate all your comments and reviews so…Thank in advance!

**WARNING:** Please note, this Fic **Signum-Fate** and it is rated **M** for strong or violent content and sexual encounters between two females. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don´t have the age for reading M content, please don´t read.

**DISCLAIMER:** Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha´s characters belong to their authors. Plot from Aleksei Volken. I only own my imagination. All characters and situations depicted in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and is purely coincidental.

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><p>-X-<p>

**Blue Eyed Demon** by Aleksei Volken

-X-

_World didn´t end in 2012…or at least not as it was expected. But in some other ways…it did._

_At least, no one from those days is still alive to tell us otherwise. _

_December 21__st__, 2012…the four horsemen of Apocalypse ravaged the surface of earth just not in the form of heavenly angels or mystified demons but in the faces of very human and very corporate horsemen. _

_The cataclysm that sent the vast majority of the big and populous cities in the world to ruins, was not a natural one dictated by dark and ancient Gods centuries ago but an economic one created by the constant and limitless strive for power and more power by the Gods of money, by the rulers of the world._

_The massive economic breakdown that let more of the eighty percent of the world broken, starving and hopeless, with millions of people with nothing more to lose than their lives; led the beginning of the modern apocalypse of the world. _

_During fifty years, in the largest ever armed conflict known by the humankind, in the middle of a rampant anarchy, people killed each other for water and food and soon after, when the diseases reigned everywhere; they killed each other for the very scarce medicine and a chance to survive._

_Live every day and every breath in hell, didn´t matter as long as they could live. This was the oxygen that fueled the fire of war exacerbated by those that won with other people´s losing. Nothing is ever created or destroyed, just transformed. The world crash down sent to misery at ninety percent of the world population but made a very, very few and clever fortunate ones even richer that they already were. Their wealthiness was directly proportional to the misery and desperation of the others._

_But even the wildest fire goes down and dies when the fuel that feed it, drain off. And finally, after the all those long years…the fuel drained off and the slow and painful reconstruction era started again._

_After the "Armageddon War" as this epic conflict was named the world population reached barely eight hundred million people. From the more than seven thousand million people an overstuffed world had in year2012, the cataclysms left the world population as it was before the year1800 of the Gregorian era. It was going to be a huge reconstruction task. It would be the most challenging one in the history of humankind._

_And guess who were there ready and prepared to lead on the reconstruction._

_Yes, the very same that caused it in the very first place._

_Nothing is ever created or destroyed, just transformed._

_It was like that before the war. It keeps being the same one hundred and forty nine years after the war._

_So, I always made myself sure to live according the rules of the world. I was always good doing so. I became one of rulers, one the darkest ones but a ruler anyhow._

_Until she showed up and crashed down my world._

_-X-_

**CHAPTER 1. Let´s get Blue.**

_**Earth, Year 2161 A.D. from Old Gregorian Calendar - Year 99 of Modern Perpetual Solar Calendar, City of New Sparta, Main Capital of the Americas (former City of Washington D.C.) **_

The head of the man exploded bloodily so quickly after a soft and almost delicate hiss, that one could say that fact was completely unrelated with the dark weapon that the tall and beautiful woman was casually pointing at him with indifference. She didn´t even blink at the mess on her feet when he, or what was left of him, hit the ground heavily.

"Did I make my point clear…gentlemen?" she asked with well-modulated and deep voice while the big photon gun in her hand retracted silently at its minimum size and she brought it in the interior pocket of her designer suit with an elegant and controlled movement.

She hated unnecessary explanations. And THAT…was an unnecessary explanation.

The three men surrounding the impeccable dressed woman with stunning and relentless blue eyes were pale and speechless.

The man that found that tragic doom on her hands was an illegal weapon dealer that awry thought he could handle more than he really could. He was a mistake that Thoma made and that Griffith and Vice let happen. That could not happen ever, ever again.

"No one in my organization do as they please Avenir. There are no information leaks and there is no such thing like a ´mind change´, a ´career change´ or a ´renegotiation´. This…" she said looking mercilessly at the thunderstruck Thoma and pointing at the dead body on her feet, "…is the only possible ´renegotiation´ with me."

Thoma gulped heavily. She almost felt pity for him, he was very young. Almost.

"You probably didn´t know that but Griffith and Vice have shared just too much with me and know perfectly what I am talking about, right guys?" Her smile was pure steel while looking at her subordinates.

"Yes…yes, Captain," the two men hurriedly answered.

"I expect this…_mistake_…never happen again."

"I…" Thoma tried to speak but his voice failed. "It will never happen again."

"Clean this shit up Avenir."

After saying that, the tall, pink haired woman walked to the elegant and modern suspension car that was waiting for her in the dark alley where the meeting with the dealer was. A tall and sturdy brunet man was waiting for her holding the car door.

He was his bodyguard even when she thought she didn´t need one, it was better to be one hundred percent sure. Furthermore, he was also her most trusted man in her whole organization. One day they were at hell together and went back. She owed him more than she could tell. He only owed her his life.

"Destination?" he asked with a remarkably good mood for the late hour once she was comfortably seated inside the car.

The woman remained silent a few seconds.

It was close to one a.m. in the morning but she was not feeling like sleeping that night. That was one of those bad ones. Too many memories were not good. Sometimes she wished she could just delete years of her life as she did with her devices.

"Just drive Zafira…, find a good place to watch the sunrise."

"As you wish Signum."

-X-

"…_The hue of that portion of the visible spectrum lying between green and indigo, evoked in the human observer by radiant energy with wavelengths of approximately 420 to 490 nanometers…"_

The blonde heard the digital explanation for umpteenth time. However, that was not the "Blue" she was looking for.

Sitting on her very ordered and neat desk she was still trying to understand her task. She looked over the hugely large window that provided a stunning view of New Sparta skyline from her office at level seventy seven of an important and exclusive building of the business side of the city.

The fact that the building belonged to one of her mothers bothered her a bit but the view worth that little nuisance.

Fate Testarossa Harlaown, one of the best private investigators of the northern region was ordered with what could be the most important case in her career and was discovering that it will be also the hardest one too.

"Signum Wolkenritter, thirty nine years old, single, ex-black ops, ex-mercenary and currently President and CEO of B.L.U.E. Incorporated, one of the most powerful combat bio-devices company in the world…Interesting profile," Fate said aloud looking at a very good holographic picture of the aforementioned woman. The picture was taken during in a charity party and the woman looked astonishingly elegant and beautiful in a blue long dress that probably cost enough to feed one hundred families that party was made to help for. "It is very hard to believe that such woman could also be a dark lord in the hard core weapon illegal market."

"That´s why she had been so successful on that," Fate´s brilliant assistance and friend told looking over to see the same file Fate was looking.

"We still have to figure out that," Fate clarified.

"Admiral Crowbel seems to be very sure of that…and your mother too," Lucino said crossing her arms over her chest.

"Which one of my mothers?" Fate asked keeping her sight on the file she was reviewing.

"Both of them think that… now that you mention it."

A soft beep announced a new visitor on her office.

"Hi,Chrono!" Lucino greeted her boss' brother and hurried herself making him comfortable.

Fate knew why he was there. Once Lucino provided them a good and steaming classical coffee, she went directly to the head.

"The answer is no, Chrono."

Her older brother looked at her seriously. "You don´t know what I am here to tell you."

"Mother wants me to refuse the Wolkenritter case. I won´t. Period. End of the conversation but of course we can talk about any other topic."

Chrono sighed. He already knew Fate was going to say that, he told to his mother she was going to say that but Lindy still begged him to try and convince her. _"Do it for Precia"_ she said, _"She has already suffered a lot as it is."_

"Fate…" Chrono started again.

"No, Chrono..." Fate interrupted him looking at him decidedly, "This case is important and has an special significance for me from the professional side as well as the personal side."

"Signum Wolkenritter is a strong competitor of your mother´s company Fate. Of course is personal, aside of the small detail that Precia despises her and the fact…that she is a dangerous person."

Fate looked at the holographic file of the woman that was reviewing. Lucino, that was moreover of a brilliant scientist, a very efficient hacker was unable to find any relevant information about that woman or her company that was not simply perfect and legal. Everything was just too perfect and legal that was for sure fake and illegal.

And of course Signum Wolkenritter was dangerous.

Fate only had to look at those stunning blue eyes in a holographic picture to feel a shiver running down her spine. If she felt that in a hologram, she didn´t want to think how it will be when they were face to face.

But she was not willing to surrender her case or to accept her mothers were right.

"Lindy recommended me with Admiral Crowbel on the first place, she cannot say now that I can´t take the case," Fate tried a different approach.

"Mother didn´t know _the case_ involved Signum Wolkenritter, Fate. Neither Precia knew."

"You know, Chrono?" Fate said thoughtfully, "Lindy and my mother are way too much worried about this woman to be just a matter of competition. What is really happening here?"

"You know that woman is not just a successful business woman Fate. Mother and Precia are worried for you. You really don´t need to risk yourself that much. You could be a top level executive at Massive BioD or a top level military officer like mother or me…"

"Chrono, let´s not have this conversation again."

During some time Fate worked at the military with her foster mother, Lindy Harlaown; but after a while she decided to take her own path. She purposely rejected very important positions at her mothers´ choice of work for her, a decision that only brought her endless discussion with them and her brother. Mainly because of the line of work she finally chose.

As a private investigator she didn´t have to give explanations to anybody. She was her own boss and she was damn good.

Fate just accepted to work at the military to gain experience and contact but making a career there was never into her plans despite what Lindy´s expectations were about that matter. On the other hand, she never considered to take a career on Massive BioD, the company that her mother Precia founded and grew up over the last ten years to become the absolute leader in manufacturing bio-devices. And Precia Testarossa never forgave her that decision.

"I accepted the case and I will keep working on it."

Chrono looked at the determined expression in her sister´s face and knew it was nothing he could do to change it. He already knew it but had to try. For her mother and for Precia. The only thing he could do now was to protect Fate´s back from the distance and with her not knowing about it.

"Ok," he said resignedly.

Fate looked at him with surprise. She didn´t expect him to accept her decision that fast but was not discussing it.

"So, what is your plan with her?" he asked innocently. "Al least you can tell me that. I promise I won´t tell Mom and Precia."

Fate doubted a while but finally decided to tell him.

"Signum Wolkenritter is positively unapproachable. The only way I can get close enough to her is as a customer. The Admirals provided me with some contacts in the South region that require some "special" bio-devices. I will be the negotiator."

Chrono shuddered. Fate was going the get herself deep into the wolf´s mouth.

"But Fate, she might do the connection between you name and Massive BioD…"

"Oh, she definitely will know the name Testarossa but she surely doesn´t know the name Harlaown. Shari and Lucino created a very solid and plausible new identity for me, only as Fate Harlaown."

"It is too risky Fate, if she figures out that you, among all people, are chasing her…"

"My new identity is shielded and one hundred percent protected. The Navy´s intelligence section is providing us all the clearances."

Chrono was worried about that too. Why the Navy was being that cooperative with an external contractor as her sister? He will have to investigate that too.

Shari and Lucino entered at that time at Fate´s private office with excited faces.

"The predator bit the bait Fate," Lucino informed with a wide smile, "Your appointment with Signum Wolkenritter is set up. She will personally welcome Fate Harlaown, acting representative of Venturis Second Federal Capital of the Americas at BLUE corporate building, next Monday, first time in the morning."

"_Yes!"_ Fate thought looking again at the deep blue eyes of the woman in the picture.

-X-

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><p>Ok guys, hope you liked this first chapter. More coming soon.<p>

Thanks again for all your comments and reviews.


	2. Blue is more than a color

Hi again.

Thanks to all of you who are kindly putting this story on alert, I really hope you guys will enjoy reading as much as I do writing. As I said to Rogue Devlin, write this story is a challenge but an extremely pleasant one.

And again, please consider English is not my native language and this version is unbetaed. I am willing to improve of course and I all your comments and reviews are deeply appreciated so…Thank in advance!

**Today´s Soundtrack:** Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Bizkit.

**WARNING:** Please note, this Fic **Signum-Fate** and it is rated **M** for strong or violent content, strong language, sexual encounters between two females and other possible niceties. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don´t have the age for reading M content, please don´t read.

**DISCLAIMER:** Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha´s characters belong to their authors. Plot from Aleksei Volken. I only own my imagination. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and is pure coincidental.

-X-

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><p><strong>Blue Eyed Demon<strong> by Aleksei Volken

-X-

_Fifty years after "The End of the World", a new hegemonic order thrived from the ashes, and the global corporations that won with the global crisis…controlled it._

_Deprived from basic order, drowned by anarchy; what used to be the countries in Central and South America, integrated together with the North giving birth to the new continental country besides Australia. Officially named as the "United Americas of the World" the new territory was colloquially and practically just called, the "Americas."_

_But they weren´t the only ones uniting. Globalization, as everything else, got extreme. From the one hundred and sixty-two existing countries at the dawn of the twenty-first century, the number turned into a very global… forty-five._

_New countries arisen but also, new ways of "development"; new wars and new conflicts were created to sustain and maintain the system. Or maybe I should say "the same ways"?_

_Then...Not all people was the same. Not all people had the same rights. Not all people had the same value._

_Today…Not all people are the same. Not all people have the same rights. Not all people have the same value._

_Today we are basically the same as in the past…with slightest differences._

_One century and a half ago people, almost any people, could just twist and turn a tap and have a treasure: Common, clean and natural….Water._

_Today, water, a synthetically pure and recycled one thousand times water is, the most expensive and rare resource in the world. Blood in no longer heavier than water._

_Back then, breathing…and not dying in the process, was as natural…as breath._

_Today, breathing…well, let me clarify, breathing clean air is impossible but let´s just say breathing reasonably breathable not lethally poisonous air is….a very expensive luxury that few people can afford._

_Never, such thing as 'equal rights' has ever existed in the history of the humankind, but less than ever in this future world._

_Back then it used to be three kinds of people:_

_There was people who just born to feed the system, to keep the schema in this fragile balance of inequity and unfairness. _

_There were people who REALLY control such schema._

_And there were 'people' who put the blood for that putrid system to become to 'life.' Predators that find the slightest slit in the human soul to ripped it out in its full nakedness and ugliness. People who motor the system with any illegal piece it need. People like me._

_Today, we still have the same three kinds of people…and THEM._

_The ones that are NOT people but look like one._

_The BioDevices._

_Not all people are the same. Not all people have the same rights. Not all people have the same value. But everybody dies the same._

_Even the BioDevices._

_Death has become the only true fairness. Or I should say it always was?_

_-X-_

**CHAPTER 2. Blue is more than a color.**

**.  
><strong>

_**Earth, Year 2161 A.D. from Old Gregorian Calendar - Year 99 of Modern Perpetual Solar Calendar, City of New Sparta, Main Capital of the Americas (former City of Washington D.C.) **_

_**Corporate Building of BLUE Incorporated.**_

"Did you _accept_ an appointment on _MY BEHALF...Without _asking_ ME?_"

The tall, pink haired woman was not yelling. She was not even raising her voice higher than her normal speaking. Her face was not moving a muscle that could possible indicated an emotion. Any emotion.

However, Hayate Yagami knew perfectly well _that said woman_ was positively…FURIOUS…at her. With an immutable smile, the little brunette turned her sight towards the slender and elegant blonde woman sitting down in the spacious office with her and their boss in a silent request for help.

"Well, sort of that Signum…Carim," she said sternly, looking at the blonde again, "and I thought this was a really an opportunity we cannot miss."

It was extremely rare that Signum got mad with her, but this could be one of those rare occasions.

Fortunately for Hayate, Carim Gracia, the company General Attorney chose that very moment to intervene.

"The only reason why we are not the top leader BioDevice´s Company in the world is because of our government contracts Signum. That segment represents only twenty percent of our business when it could be easily… significantly higher," Carim said with her cool and immutable lawyer façade.

"And there is a reason why Carim…I don´t want the government dogs sniffing around my business!"

Hayate tensed a bit due the raising in her boss' voice. Carim was not her and Signum could talk her with that tone that she reserved for the rest of the world that were not Hayate…or Zafira.

"You have me and Hayate controlling everything, BLUE is perfectly legal," Carim simply said not taking offense in Signum scolding.

"I mean my other… 'businesses'…" Signum added annoyed.

Carim made an equally annoyed gesture that, for her customary immutability, said a lot.

"As long as you manage enough to control those… impulses… that 'compel' you to blowing out dealer´s heads in sordid alleys at the middle of the night…" Carim glared at Signum bravely, "Your… 'side' businesses are safe."

"That was an unnecessary explanation…but it was required," Signum said as only justification.

"Whatever!" Carim finally exploded, "¡You are the CEO of a Top Combat Biodevices company! ANY of our highly advanced and enhanced combat biodevices can do the job for you!" Same as Signum rarely got mad with Hayate; Carim rarely lost her temple with Signum.

That was a morning of exceptions.

"There are some things that cannot be delegated Carim."

Signum was sitting in her spacious liquid crystal desk, her voice had turned to normal tinge again but her eyes still had that pale, icy blue hue they got when she was under fury.

None of the women speak during several seconds.

Life was hard sometimes for them and definitely not fair.

"Don´t shit the place where you eat…basic hygienic measures," Signum said after a while slightly turning in her comfortable air suspended chair and kept her gaze at the large window with a stunning view of the city at the morning.

New Sparta was one of the big cities on the world that was completely reconstructed and embellished after the Wars.

"Signum," Carim tried again once she calmed down, "It is just an appointment. We don´t have a accept anything we consider dangerous. We, at least, can hear what this is about."

Hayate stood up from her chair and placed a thin device in front of Signum.

"Venturis is the second main administrative capital of the Americas, yes. It is the government, yes. But it is way far enough from here to keep everything safe. We have our other business in Asia and the middle East and…"

"My businesses," Signum clarified with harsh voice and still an icy but sad glare. Despite whatever she said or did, she always kept Hayate and Carim out of her 'side' business.

Hayate nodded slightly and continued a bit ironically, "Ok, Your…Business... In any case, let´s just talk with her." She pointed at the device where a number with more than twelve zeros glittered blatantly. "They want an exclusive production contract with us. Our latest combat model. Exclusively. THIS is the contract we might have been waiting for."

Hayate had a piercing gaze on Signum. They didn´t mention it but it was not a secret that she and Carim wanted Signum to retire from her 'side' business. Signum on her own didn´t want to disappoint them; but she had always thought that a predator was always a predator, not matter how expensive or refined was the designer suit it was wearing.

"Nothing is what we seem to expect Hayate. The brightest promise might turn into your worst nightmare before you even know," Signum said looking at Hayate and then to Carim. Both women smiled widely. Signum didn´t say it explicitly but they knew she had accepted. Or at least, she had given up at the topic.

No one knew Signum better in the world, as they did.

"And when this… 'Person'… comes?" Signum asked.

Hayate steeled herself.

"She should arrive in…" she looked at the watch suspended in the wall, "…an hour or so," she finished with her brightest and best charming smile ever.

Carim could almost swear she heard Signum growl in frustration. Hayate just widen her smile.

They were not blood related but surely they were to each other, the closer to a family than anyone of them will ever have.

Hardness of life forged strange alliances. And love thrived even in the strangest places. Like those little dogged and anemic scrubs that bound themselves to grow in the most unsuitable and horrible possible places.

Their alliance was like one of those strange ones; devastated, muted and lonely, but still alive…Their own personal and undisclosed tragedy.

Hayate loved Carim. Carim loved Signum. And Signum…The person Signum loved…was dead.

-X-

"So…what are you going to do now Precia?"

Lindy Harlaown, Admiral of the Unified Armada of the Americas, let her sixth pill of condensed sweetener fall into her tea cup while asking the question she wished never have to do at her beloved and lifetime best friend.

"You should decrease you consumption of sweetener Lindy," Precia said as if the previous question had never been voiced, even when she knew it was pointless. Lindy had drunk her tea like that for twenty years. Maybe more.

Lindy stared at her and reciprocated Precia treatment by ignoring her comment. She finished removing her tea and sipped it with evident pleasure.

"I sent Arf with her," Precia said at last. "There is nothing more I can do…for now."

Lindy remained silent as if considering her next words carefully.

"I didn´t have any idea Midget was planning something like this Precia. I wouldn´t have recommended Fate if I…"

Precia dismissed her friend´s words and interrupt her.

"I know that! Do be a fool you too. I have more than enough with Fate´s stubbornness."

"Do you think she will suspect?" Lindy asked placing her empty cup at the spotless and genuine wood table that Precia had in her private offices in Massive BioD, the world leader manufacturer of standard biodevices in the world.

"No," Precia answered somberly, "She won´t. And that precisely, will be the problem."

-X-

"…BLUE Incorporated…**B**iodevices - **L**ethal and **U**niversally **E**nhanced"…."Christ sake Fate; Who, in the name of God, use the word 'Lethal' in a company name?" After a short and somehow dramatic pause, the red haired woman continued, "Are you really sure this IS what you want to do?"

"Someone who likes the word 'Blue' and that was looking for a good acronym?" the blonde answered keeping her eyes on the digital device taking notes. "And yes, this is what I want to do."

The woman glared at Fate´s comment. "Well, if those were her intentions, she failed miserably…" As Fate didn´t acknowledge her sarcasm, she used the direct approach. "Don´t be a smart ass with me young lady, I am way too old for that,"

The blonde finally put her device down and looked at the woman sitting with her at the back seat of the car while Lucino drive them to the so expected appointment with BLUE´s President.

"Arf, I am twenty nine years old…certainly I am not as old as you, but I am very far away of being a girl," she said glaring back at her companion, "And I know perfectly what I am getting into."

"I doubt it;" Arf insisted stubbornly, "The good thing is that you won't meet that hell of a woman alone."

Fate sighed. "Arf…I am very sorry but the only reason you are here now is because I didn´t want to prolong the discussion with my mother. You have strictly, strictly forbidden to say A WORD during that meeting. Am I clear?"

"Fate, that woman…ok, ok," she adjusted the argument after getting a new glare from Fate, "That… company… is a fierce competitor of your mother´s company. You are, somehow, personally involved; deeply involved, if you ask my opinion. If that woman gets the slightest idea of who you really are, she might suit Massive BioD for industrial espionage or something even worst! We will get into their corporate building Fate! With fake identities!"

"I am getting in with a fake identity, for which I have government authorization to do…and no, I am not asking your opinion and you are wrong. BLUE and Massive are competitors but not in the way you mention. Massive does not manufacture combat BioDevices as BLUE does."

"No," Arf concealed, "Massive doesn´t call their Biodevices as 'Combat' but has a 'Personal Security' product line and …"

"Arf," Fate cut her companion with fierce eyes, "I am not changing my mind. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. I took this job and I am going to fulfill it."

For that time, her standard government vehicle parked at the ground level of BLUE Incorporated building. Fate appreciated that parking spots where available at the upper levels but their instructions were to access from the ground.

She suspected that someone wanted them to take some time getting to their final destination.

After the fifth checking point that thought was no longer a mere suspicion. Fate was sure they were checking her and Arf deeply. She prayed that Lucino and Shari were really as good as she thought they were.

The final revision came at the fifteenth floor were they should take the private elevator that would carry them to the penthouse where the BLUE´s CEO had her offices.

Fate crossed the scanning chamber and getting the green light, she assumed was the indication to proceed ahead. She stood up waiting for Arf.

As soon as her red haired companion stepped into the scanner, a red light flashed and an alarm buzzing put everyone around them in alert.

"What the hell is going on?" Arf asked raising her hands in front of her as if saying that she had nothing on them.

"What happened?" Fate asked to the check point operator. "She is unarmed," she promptly added noticing that combat biodevices with black uniforms and heavy plasma guns were approaching faster. What concerned her the most, was that the big plasma guns those guys had and that were _fully_ deployed and ready to shoot.

With a severe look, the operator pointed at a floating signal placed before the scanning chamber indicating _'BioDevices are not allowed beyond this point.´_

"She is a Biod," the operator said as it was the most obvious reason in the world. "She can´t not pass beyond this point."

"What?" Fate asked incredulously. She simply could not credit what she was hearing.

"Are you people fucking insane?" Arf yelled on her own, completely angered.

For that moment, five of the combat biodevices had approached and were pointing Arf menacingly while the others were waiting in strategic positions around them.

"Everybody, stand by," a masculine and deep voice said.

A tall brunet, white haired man approached them. He was wearing a one piece elegant suit and moved within confidence and authority.

"Ma'am, please step back," he requested looking at Arf.

"This is illegal," Fate argued, "You can´t…"

"Please," Zafira said interrupting Fate and looking at both women decisively, "Ma'am, we can talk all you want but she HAS to step back…NOW."

Reluctantly, Fate made a gesture to Arf that she obeyed equally reluctantly.

Once Arf was standing before the scanning, two of the combat biodevices scanned her, now with handheld devices.

"Massive BioD, Personal Security, Special Enhanced Model A.R.F.1502 – Advanced Replicant Feature, Limited Edition," one of the Biods scanning Arf recited plainly.

"Wow," Zafira said looking appreciatively at Arf. "This is the first time I see one of your kind; nothing less than a Replicant. You guys are really a Limited Edition."

Fate, who was still waiting on the other side of the scanning chamber felt outraged.

"As I said, this is illegal…The Geneve Treaty of 2067 stablish…"

"Save it," Zafira interrupted Fate again. "This is NOT a public place. We are a defense related company with industrial secrecy protocols and policies. If you want to proceed to you appointment, she stays here."

The big man pointed at the signal. To Fate´s deep discontent, the damn thing had the Regulatory Defense Commission hologram. They were approved to implement whatever security measure they consider appropriated.

"Of course, you can always cancel your appointment if you wish," Zafira made a gesture and diligently, the operator dialed a number and a floating screen materialized in front of him almost immediately. Hayate´s visage appeared seconds after.

"Miss Harlow wishes to…"

"No!" Fate screamed before she could avoid it. All the men looked at her waiting. She looked at Arf saying 'I am sorry' silently and announced herself to Hayate with renewed confidence, "I am here for a meeting with CEO Wolkenritter."

Nothing was going to stop her to have that meeting or to complete her mission. She was planning to attend the meeting alone since the very first time.

"_We were waiting for you Miss Harlaown. Please proceed. Zafira will walk you here,"_ Hayate said through the screen with a smile and cut the communication.

With an annoyed look Arf had to let Fate to walk alone with the big guy into the elevator that will carry her up to hell.

Fate made the whole path in the elevator in an angry silence. But at least the long way to the seventieth floor helped her to cool off.

By the time she got out of the elevator in a cool and fancy penthouse, she was wearing again her professional cool face and mundane attitude and was ready for the representation.

She walked out confidently to meet a small brunette and a slender blonde, none of them was taller than her and she was wearing her best high heels with a tight-fitting black dress. A very short one that made her long and toned legs look even longer and breathtaking; her attire was completed with a short and elegant white long sleeves jacket. She knew she looked sexy but professional…or at least she hoped so.

Hayate arched a brow a millesimal at the sight Fate offered. Carim remained immutable. Both women welcomed Fate with a slight head nod and Hayate took the lead.

"It´s very nice to meet you Fate; I am Hayate. I had the conference call with your people last week, she is Carim and…" Hayate made their introductions and paused for the main dish of the day, "Please allow me to introduce you with our corporate CEO, Signum Wolkenritter."

That was the end of Fate´s self-assurance.

By the second she met the deep blue gaze in front of her, she froze. Involuntary, but she ran out speechless.

The woman that was slowly approaching, walking with the confidence and certainty of a big feline, was even taller than her and was wearing a classic straight and elegant dark skirt suite without any adornment. She was all hard lines and sharp angles and controlled movements.

But the feature that had Fate struggling to catch her breath back was her eyes. They were the coldest and most piercing blue Fate had ever seen in her life and ran across her like a sword.

For Fate, meet Signum Wolkenritter was like been stricken by a lightning in a thunder storm; she was totally unaware of it, but to Hayate and Carim, she looked stunned exactly like that; like hit by a lightning. The two friends smiled discreetly, already knowing that Signum had that effect indistinctively in both men and women.

"Signum, this is Miss Fate…" Hayate started and suddenly, made a stop..."…Harlaown…"

What disturbed Hayate and Carim to no end was to turn around finding a similarly speechless Signum.

The words died in Hayate's mouth at Signum´s sight. Her friend was frowning slightly and her eyes had that icy glare that foresaw _nothing_ good.

"….n?"

"..…aown?"

"…Miss Harlaown?"

Fate realized someone was talking to her at Hayate´s third attempt.

"Are you ok, Miss Harlaown?"

Finally, she could hear the whole question and focus on her interlocutor, blushing deeply when she realized that she was frozen like a doll and that it was not the first question the woman addressed to her.

"Yes…" she composed herself to respond. _"Goddamit! Think, Goddamit Think! Think something quickly, don´t stay muted like the damn fucking idiot you are!" _

Fate was surprised of her own reaction in front of Signum Wolkenritter.

"Yes…sorry," she said a bit clumsily and then with more confidence, "I had to admit, I am still upset after certain incident…downstairs," she finally managed to say, collecting herself and infusing some credible indignation on her voice.

"And you are the one coming in with a _Biod_ and trying to break _our_ rules." Without even saying _'Hello, nice to meet you too,'_ Signum stated her sentence icily.

Hayate and Carim looked at Signum astonished. Hayate´s glare on her was evident but Signum just ignored her.

Fate was open-mouthed by the woman´s boldness. _"What the hell…,"_ was her most coherent thought.

Before anyone could say something else that will turn to be definitely irreparable, Hayate pointed at the meeting area where comfortable cushioned divans waited. "Please, let´s sit down. We will talk a lot more comfortably and calmed there."

After saying that, she approached Fate smiling gently, leading her to the sitting area while offering something to drink. In the meantime, Carim directed a puzzled look at Signum.

"She is a potential BIG customer!" Carim hissed in a whisper when Signum passed by her.

Fate sat down and crossed her legs. Carim and Hayate sat at the side divans but Signum stayed standing up with her eyes roving over Fate from tiptoes to head…and back…unashamedly.

Carim and Hayate could not credit her boss attitude.

"You have a curious way to do business President Wolkenritter," Fate said with stern voice but all blushed under the other woman…visual survey… over _her_ body.

Signum didn´t say a word and fixed her gaze with Fate´s. After a few seconds, just out of the blue she said with cold and harsh voice, "Go with our competitors. I am sure they will be more than willing to do business with you Miss… _Harlaown_… Now, if you excuse me."

She broke the connection with Fate and left the room leaving the three women perplexed and speechless. By her voice, Fate could say Signum wasn´t sorry to leave like that… at all.

-X-

"May I ask what the fuck was that?" Carim asked to Signum´s back, something that she hated by all means. "And please, look at me when you answer."

After leaving her main office, Signum walked chased by her own overwhelming feelings to the small studio where she _really _worked. The other office was her public façade but that space was really _her_ place. And very, very few people had allowed entrance.

Zafira had, of course. Hayate had, undoubtedly and unavoidably. And Carim had, sadly.

Signum was now regretting some of those decisions; one, to be precise.

More than sixty minutes had passed since left her office, so Signum assumed that somehow, her girls managed to keep _that woman_ interested and talked about something. She didn´t want to know but unfortunately, Carim seemed to have the intention of telling her.

She was standing up holding her hands in her back looking out the window. She had kept in that position since she got in and she knew Carim was waiting for an answer, a direct, face to face answer.

Signum turned slowly; internally thankful that was not Hayate the one asking.

"We cannot work with her," she said plain and fair.

"Why?" Carim asked the same way, "Hayate and I talked with her, we tried to give her a plausible reason of your reaction…coming in with a Biod by our competition and a Replicant model by the way, helped out a bit. You know, that´s a slap in the face for anyone and you are not exactly famous for your kindness. Aside of the fact that those damn Replicants things should not exist in the world, she bought it. We still have a chance. And now you tell me that we cannot do business with them? Why?"

Signum remained silent. Her rational mind told her it was impossible. It was simple impossible she could be the same person. Or impossible they could be related. But her guts were telling otherwise; screaming otherwise.

"Did you check on her credentials, her background, everything about her?" She asked instead of voicing her confused thoughts. She had to put some order first. Close all the pending ends.

"Yes…" Carim answered tentatively, "As we do with everyone with do business with."

"We need a lot more in this case. Call Hayate and Zafira," Signum ordered, "And check her again, deeply; we SHALL know everything about her. Call our best guy. Do whatever it takes. Check her deep as we have never checked anyone else before."

Carim knew by those instructions that something really serious was bothering Signum.

"Okay, if that´s a requirement to do business with them…"

Signum looked at her angrily, "You don´t get it, right? I never said we will do business with her. We will do as I said for a reason and business is the last one."

"What is the reason then? If you care to tell me."

Signum breathed heavily. "She is identical."

Carim looked at her disconcerted.

"Identical?"

The sight of Signum when she answered with drowned voice produced a shiver in Carim´s back. The strong and feared woman, well known in the dangerous black market as a dark and implacable lord, seemed… haunted by demons.

"She is identical to… Alicia Testarossa."

-X-

The trip back to Fate´s office was done in silence despite Arf´s best attempts.

Fate had an impenetrable barrier building up around her and Arf knew the meeting between her and Precia Testarossa will be a dangerous outburst, from both sides.

"It was no fucking way we could have known they did Biod scanning Fate," Arf tried again.

That finally produced a reaction in Fate.

"Arf… they are a bloody Biodevices company! A damn good one!…I shouldn´t had never consent my mother´s crazy idea to take you, among all people, with me!"

Fate regretted her words as soon as she saw Arf hurt expression.

"I don´t qualify that high Fate….I am not 'people' for them."

Fate kicked herself internally. She really appreciated Arf, had a lot of memories of her original anima and precious memories with Arf herself.

"Look Arf, I am sorry. I don´t know what they are thinking but you know I don't think like that," Fate said touching Arf´s shoulder for the first time that day. She made Arf pay for her anger with her mother and that was not fair.

"They took it bad that you were let´s say, from a competitor, that´s not your fault. Aside that, a lot have been happening and I am…in a bad mood. I shouldn´t have said that."

And her recent breakdown with BLUE CEO was not helping her mood either but she took good care of mention that small detail.

Arf grinned at Fate and punched her shoulder.

"Damn you haven´t!"

The Biod never got mad at Fate for too long. It was the same with her anima when Fate was a child.

Fate smiled at the memory and pretended to hear Arf ranting against BLUE but the truth was that her mind was far beyond the car.

Just by recalling in her memory those bright and stunning blue eyes; she felt uneasy, feverish. No one had ever caused such impression on her.

Despite all the explanations those two women gave her, she was sure something more was happening behind those deep blue eyes.

She played her role perfectly after Signum left. She convinced those women that they convinced her to still consider do business with them; nothing betrayed that she was actually desperate to keep in contact with them and more important, to know the real motivations for Signum´s reaction towards her.

She had to know more about that woman.

Well aside of her contract with the Armada, Fate was intrigued by her; she was captivated like a prey under the sight of a predator, caught in a dangerous and unknown web but willing to stay just to see those eyes again; to have those eyes over her... again.

Signum Wolkenritter was a lot more than she seemed to be.

-X-

_No one knows what it's like  
>To be the bad man<br>To be the sad man  
>Behind blue eyes<br>And no one knows  
>What it's like to be hated<br>To be fated to telling only lies_

-X-

Thanks for your comments and reviews.


	3. Blue Mood

**Today´s Soundtrack:** In the Mood….yes, Glen Miller.

**WARNING:** Please note, this Fic **Signum-Fate** and it is rated **M** for strong or violent content, strong language, sexual encounters between two females and other possible niceties. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don´t have the age for reading M content, please don´t read.

**DISCLAIMER:** Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha´s characters belong to their authors. Plot from Aleksei Volken. I only own my imagination. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and is pure coincidental.

-X-

* * *

><p><strong>The Blue Eyed Demon<strong> by Aleksei Volken

-X-

_Choice._

_I don´t remember where I heard it but it was said that no such wonderful thing as a 'choice' exists. Choice is just an illusion, created between those with power…and those without._

_During many, many more years than I care to count, I thought that I had a choice._

_I remember the first time I saw her. I saw them…will be more proper. _

_She was a little girl, very thinnish and feeble, tattered and muddy. She was all eyes and dirt; clear and limpid purple-greenish eyes. Hell of a color for sure. There are two things I remember more about her at that frozen moment in my memory; those indefinable but piercingly expressive eyes and the bravery with she was determined to protect an even pitiful creature than her. _

_It was close night. No one was on the streets. There was only the darkness and the unutterable. And a big, big man standing up in front of them; ready to take two little girls for whoever knows what purpose. You name it; child prostitution, mendicancy, prey, fun…dinner. Living in the streets for a child never had been what you can consider 'safe.' Let aside when such 'street' is a gigantic dunghill in the middle of nowhere, where…nobody cares what happen to strangers. _

_They were strangers. I never had seen the two girls before that day._

_And the big guy never expected that a strong brat will land on top of his head with a twenty-five pounds rock. Ok, it wasn´t a rock but it was twenty five pounds. He was dead by the time he hit the ground. I was thirteen and he was not my first one._

_As I said…street is a hard place._

_-X-_

**CHAPTER 3. Blue Mood.**

-X-**  
><strong>

_**Earth, Year 2161 A.D. from Old Gregorian Calendar - Year 99 of Modern Perpetual Solar Calendar, City of New Sparta, Main Capital of the Americas (former City of Washington D.C.) **_

_**Corporate Building of BLUE Incorporated.**_

"_Well, well, well, this is an unexpected surprise,"_ an undetermined age but attractive woman flashed a smile at the video phone call after seeing her interlocutor. It was close to midnight but her businesses were very busy at all times, twenty four – seven; and she always had time for this special customer. _"What I can do for you Mrs. Wolkenritter?"_

"Save it Serena," Signum bluntly responded as greeting and then just kept silent, staring at the woman floating on the transparent screen in front of her. She was sitting comfortably on the modern and spacious living room of the penthouse she had on the very top of her corporate building, her mobile communication device was resting on a low and elegant glass table projecting the holographic screen from where mistress Serena Earls was speaking to her.

Hayate was of course completely against the idea that Signum lived not just close of her work place but _at_ her work place but she never heard at her little protégé suggestions for moving to another location.

"_Ok…what would you like tonight?"_ Serena asked charmingly without losing her smile at Signum´s rudeness. _"A woman? A guy? Both?"_

In her line of business, Serena knew her knowledge about customer's tastes, mainly the 'special' ones like Signum Wolkenritter, was the very key for her success. Those days the vast majority of her customers preferred pleasure Biodevices. They were safer, predictable and customizable and they have the plus that they could be _anything_ a customer wanted: a woman with a penis, a man with a vagina, a 'true' hermaphrodite; a man with two penis…anything the most perverse fantasy anyone could possibly imagine (and pay for) was at the reach of hand and bed.

But still some rare people preferred… normal and boring regular… humans. And who she was to deny people their pleasures? Mainly when that people was one of her most important customers and providers?

It was long ago since Signum asked for her services, probably two years so she was delighted to have her back and willing to fulfill her requirements.

"Women," Signum said her voice sounding a bit strangled even for her when she answered and cursing her lack of control she added, "Two."

"_Perfect,"_ Serena said her smile widening, _"Any special requirement?"_

"Surprise me."

After saying that, Signum cut the communication without further comment. She preferred that way, plain and simple, with no explanations or commitments. Pure and plain business.

Putting her mobile device in resting mode she stood up from the couch and walked to the big terrace the penthouse had. Her 'apartment' was a two level, L shape construction, on the very top of her corporate building. It was spacious and illuminated since almost all the exterior walls were strengthened panes of armored glass that not even a bazooka could break. A heavy plasma gunshot…maybe could. If whoever carrying it lived enough to shoot, maybe that would break that crystal.

One of the very few advantages that the past and current way of living had, was the she was an expert on several weaponry, surveillance and defensive systems…and had the way to get them.

Very few people knew she actually lived there. Hayate, Carim, Zafira…of course. Serena and others that eventually meet her there were completely sure that whatever she did there, was part of the work and not her home. And she liked it that way.

The best way to hide something is in front of the eyes of everybody.

And in this case, everybody thought she lived discretely in a lavish part of the city. She even owned a house there and showed up conveniently around in erratic and unpredictable patterns. As she did in some other known locations that she maintained as a perfect façades but her truly operating center was there.

BLUE corporate building was her personal fortress.

It was no other building around taller than hers. She made sure of that when the building rose to the sky almost ten years ago.

"_Fifteen years,"_ Signum thought watching without truly see the breathtaking skyline of New Sparta at night, tightening her grip on the metal rim surrounding the terrace.

It had been fifteen years since she died. Fourteen years since she had founded BLUE. Ten years since she had almost built BLUE corporate building with her own hands and blood.

It took less five seconds to mention those three events. Less than five seconds to encompass the more than four hundred and sixty millions of seconds that those fifteen years meant on her life.

Her own personal path towards retribution.

And probably, her personal one way ticket straight to hell. If only she could believe on hell she at least could have the relief of thinking that heaven existed.

During the whole afternoon, she tried her best to NOT think about _her_ but inevitably, she went to the place where she kept that picture. The first picture they had together when Hayate was still a little child. When all of them were still kids and they thought that choices existed.

Very few people kept printed pictures those years. But at the time that picture was taken, she insisted in having it printed. _"I don´t want to turn a device on to see guys,"_ she said with that charming and warm smile, _"I want to keep you close of my heart all the time."_

And that she did. She kept that picture with her for years, always close to her.

What bothered Signum the most was that with time, the memories about her had faded out like those old papers that lost bright and sharpness until eventually, they disappear.

She knew the woman she was looking at the picture was Shamal but the memory of her was fading.

The memory of Shamal´s voice and laugh was fading; of her warmth and her skin, even the burning memory of her pain when she died, everything was fading in air replaced by a dark emptiness.

Everything was fading but her wrath. That one was still intact despite the years.

And the woman that _dared_ to show up at _her_ office that morning was a living reminder of the reason for that merciless wrath.

A soft buzz on her wrist took her back to the present time. It was Zafira. Her 'guests' had arrived.

Reluctantly, Signum left the terrace, back to the apartment inside to wait standing up on the middle of the living area. That night, she was dressed completely in black, with long and elegant trousers and a beautiful and very expensive long sleeve silk shirt, it was elegant but yet comfortable, distant, imposing…dangerous. A color spoke tons about the person wearing it and Signum was always careful that her color said the less about her.

The elevator doors slid open and two voluptuous women walked in confidently at her living room where she was waiting, evaluating Serena´s selection. Zafira walked in and waited silently behind them.

Both women were tall and slender but full with curves. They were a brunette and a auburn one, in their late twenties. Both of them stopped a very prudent distance and endured the evaluation with her best smile.

Keeping her face still Signum nodded slightly. Serena had her touch precise and tuned as always. Signum had never told anything about her private life to Serena but in her previous "selections" never chose blondes and Serena never ever sent her one. Probably that woman was too observant for her own good.

Then, still admiring at the women, something got Signum attention and transformed her expression in a rictus of anger. Her eyes went to Zafira´s but the big guy only shook his head negatively.

Signum activated her mobile device and Mrs. Serena Earls was on screen in less than two seconds.

"What the hell is that?" Signum pointed to new comers, her eyes never leaving her interlocutor on the screen.

A small redhead was just barely showing up behind the tall brunette.

"_Well, since has been a long time since the last time you requested our services, I thought about a little bonus for you,"_ Serena explained. _"Don´t be mad. She is human, newly arrived, pure and untouched."_

"And a kid" Signum said with her voice lowering down so coldly and and her eyes paling so dangerously, that Serena felt a shiver running down her back at the icy change on Signum´s eyes. Then she remembered why everybody called Signum the Blue Demon on the streets and cursed the one who popped up with the idea to send her the fresher meat they had that night.

As the sinner she was, Signum never ran away from her sins. She had plenty of sins but taking child for pleasure was not among them.

As they talked, the subject of the discussion showed up behind the brunette woman a little more, looking at Signum.

She looked at the girl and then back to Serena. The girl could not be older than fifteen at best. In that business, she was lucky that she grew up that age still…virgin. Signum wondered what could be the tragic story behind the blue eyes framed by auburn hair that made the girl end as human meat for sale.

"_Don´t take it bad, Signum….it was a gift but…"_

Signum was thinking as Serena was talking. The mistress sent the girl to her and not to some fat, ugly and old bastard who probably can´t get his dick hard and would rape the girl in many other unimaginable and loathsome ways.

…_I will take her back if…"_

She thought about that night so many years ago.

Maybe that was what fate really meant.

Unexpected things happening on unexpected times for no other reason; something that one could call a confluence of misery.

"I´ll take her," Signum said all of a sudden leaving Serena muted in the middle of the phrase. "Just don´t expected her back. Put that on my account."

With that she ended the communication abruptly again. Signum made an elegant gesture towards Zafira who walked closer and put a big hand on the girl shoulder.

"Come with me," he said seriously but gently.

The girl looked at the big man with uncertainty but a nod from the two escorts made her consent the request in silence. It was the first time the two women were there serving Signum but they knew what was said around about the woman and didn´t want to take any risk.

Signum never had the same escort twice. There were always strangers. And they kept being strangers after that.

And Serena was damn clear about their customer with her girls, _"Don´t make stupid questions, better don´t make any question; don´t be silly, don´t try to be 'funny,' don´t argue about anything that is requested…and the most important issue ever: Don´t. Make. Her. Mad."_

Both women were wishing her boss would have followed her own recommendations but it was too late for that.

When Zafira left with the redhead girl, Signum walked to the small cabinet where she kept her bottles, took a white transparent one, served a generous portion of vodka-sake on a glass and walked out to the terrace again.

"Serve yourselves whatever you want," she said to the women on her way out to the nightly air.

The women chose the same their host was drinking and followed Signum out.

They were so high there on the top of the building that the air was a lot colder than at ground level, both women looked at each other and at the light night dresses they were wearing for that engagement wondering what was their host planning for the night.

Once they made their way out, it was a pleasant surprise to note that tall pole heaters were strategically located on the area where Signum was waiting for them.

"_No questions,"_ their boss had said. So, the more adventurous of the two, the brunette one, walked towards Signum with studied calm and raising her glass offered a toast.

"For Micaiah," was her offer.

"I don´t know who the hell she is," Signum said arching an eyebrow without moving her glass to correspond the toast.

"When I am done with you…you will," the woman said and then, keeping her eyes locked with Signum´s, took a generous sip of her drink a leaned forward to kiss her.

Raising one hand, Micaiah took the elegant clasp on her hair releasing it and a cascade of slick and silky long black hair fell on her back. With expert movements and without breaking the contact, the woman removed Signum glass from her hard and handed them to her partner who was already waiting for it.

The two of them worked well together that was why Serena chose them for this task.

Breaking the kiss but keeping their bodies in contact, Micaiah took Signum hands in hers and brought them to her body, urging at her owner to wander around by arching her body against Signum´s.

Breathing deeply, Signum tried her best to disconnect her brain and her memories, letting her physical senses to arouse and wash everything out in the passion of the flesh.

And Micaiah was doing a hell of a job awakening her senses, leaving kisses sometimes soft as feathers and sometimes hard as bites on the skin of her neck and shoulders that the brunette exposed unbuttoning Signum´s shirt. Her task was slow but expert, she unbuttoned a button and while her mouth dived on skin, her hands went beneath Signum´s shirt to claw on her abdomen flesh and then back again. By the time her shirt was completely opened, Signum heart was already pounding heavily and her senses were completely focused on the woman in her hands, and nothing more than that woman.

A hand made her way then at her inner thigh over the fabric of her trousers and Signum turned slightly to meet the eyes of the auburn woman. Micaiah ministrations lowered down their pace but her hands never left Signum´s body.

The other woman was almost as tall as Signum, and her hands were delicate but strong. Micaiah was the audacious one of the duo, the auburn haired was the shy one. With careful, measured movements, her hand roamed from Signum´s thigh to her groin to the border of her trouser as if she was indecisive.

But she wasn´t.

Getting closer to Signum, she whispered at her hear, "I am Teana…tell me anything I can do to please you."

And after saying that, she lowered her head and started a trace of kisses on Signum´s chest, taking the path down between her breasts and her abdomen until she kneeled down in front on her.

Micaiah returned to her ministrations with renewed intensity over Signum´s upper body as Teana undid her trousers and slid them down enough to expose the older woman underwear. She caressed her hips and thighs with her hands as her lips and teeth played with the skin still covered by the fabric.

The rate of Signum breath told Micaiah it was time to start getting serious. Generally, it didn´t take her that much time and effort to have a customer sharp and ready and she was starting to take this one as a personal challenge. She really meant it when said that Signum was going to remember who she was.

Micaiah´ s hand went down and while Teana kept the attention of her mouth and fingers on Signum´s hips and groins, the brunette hand went straight there for the core. She was rewarded with a soft pant from her, until then, unapproachable customer.

When her hand left that place between Signum´s legs, Micaiah took Signum face with both hands and engaged in a deep and hungry, almost wild kiss with her while Teana lowered down Signum´s underwear, grabbed her hips firmly and captured her sex with her mouth.

Signum grasped herself at the two women and let herself to be swept away by the tide.

-X-

"What is next?" Carim asked looking deceptively at Signum. "Puppies and kitties?"

It was really very early in the morning but for some odd and unknown reason, Carim was already there, elegant and angry, standing in front of her.

She didn´t answer because Carim didn´t really wanted an answer. She was purely mad at her.

Her two escorts for the night were on their way out just at the very same time Carim arrived to talk with her. She despised that kind of services and despised Signum even more for use them. The blonde was standing at the living room just in time to see the two beautiful women walk smiling towards the elevator.

Aside of the regular fee that Madame Earls granted them, Signum gave them an additional bonus. It was really a shame that she didn´t use the same escorts twice.

Signum waited until the two women took the elevator and then faced Carim. For sure, she had already seen last night's girl under Zafira´s care.

"What do you expect to do with her?" Carim asked more calmly at Signum´s silence. To her extreme annoyance, unlike the previous day, Signum looked rested and relaxed that morning, she was almost smiling when she turned back and headed to the modern kitchen.

Signum´s penthouse was big and spacious and looked even more spacious because she kept the furniture on the minimum. Aside of the living room and the big terrace where she spent most of the time with the escorts, she had a discrete dining area, a big studio, a small kitchen and at the second level, her private rooms where the escorts never were. And no other people by the way could be there, not even Carim or Hayate. Nobody but her could ever walk in there.

"We will see," Signum said rummaging around the cabinets after offering Carim some coffee. Silently, Carim joined Signum at the kitchen table and in no time, Signum was sitting on the table and Carim was the one handing her the components of her regularly frugal breakfast.

After finishing, without further word, Signum headed to Zafira´s quarters located in the same building some few levels down of her penthouse.

When they arrived, the girl was sitting at the dining table, eating something under Zafira´s searching gaze.

The area where the girl stayed was one of the two staff apartments Signum kept there for special occasions. The two places were identical one bedroom apartments of fifteen hundred square feet. In one of them, Zafira lived permanently and the other was handy for any unexpected requirement. They almost never used it.

At the sight of the boss at his door, Zafira left the girl eating and went to her encounter. Signum didn´t have to make the question.

"She hadn´t say a word," Zafira informed.

Signum entered the room and sit at the table in front of the girl. Zafira and Carim stood a bit away of them.

The girl stopped eating and looked at Signum; it was questioning and curiosity lingering on her eyes but no fear. Her eyes were slate blue, a bit darker than Signum own ones.

"Do you know who am I?" Signum asked. The girl nodded.

"Do you understand why you were sent last night here?" Signum asked again looking intently at her. The girl nodded again, maybe too fast. Either she was smart and brave or blunt.

"And were you ready to fulfill my requirements, whatever they were?" she kept making questions with her face immutable. The girl blushed but nodded again. Probably she was smart.

"Why?" The way Signum asked denoted that everything beyond that point will depend on the answer.

The girl´s eyes never left Signum´s. It took her some seconds but finally answered with husky voice, fulfilled with the clear determination of a purpose.

"I…have…to live."

Just that.

A desire? A hope?…An illusion? Or the unexpected gears of destiny that moved true aims regardless one's own life and intentions?

The basic and primal survival instinct shone on those eyes but so strong and pure that the intention underneath was well known to Signum.

"Who did it?" what´s her next question.

The girl looked at her with surprise. She was still too young; too young for having aims of revenge already.

She looked indecisively behind Signum, at Zafira and Carim and then back to Signum. The latter didn´t say a word or offer an explanation; she really had to know what to expect from this girl.

"They…they came home…They said my father…owed them and he shall pay…"

"Where?"

"Japan," was the girl answered.

It was only one possibility on that scenario. The Yakuza. After China´s debacle´s, Japan owned half of what used to be the Asian countries, and the Yakuza family´s owned half of Japan. Russians owned the other half. Signum knew the Yakuza and avoided them like the pest. She let her Russians partners to handle Japan and the Yakuza for her.

"They killed them," she added, this time before Signum could make the question.

"Your parents?"

The girl nodded.

"And my…brother."

Signum didn´t have to ask what had happened to her after that. The yakuza disposed what wasn´t useful for them and sold the girl for prostitution; she was young, exotic and virgin. Madame Earls surely paid a fortune for her in the auction.

"I have to find her."

The girl´s statement took Signum by surprise and looked back at her with full attention. She could hear the gears of destiny moving again.

"My sister…they… have my sister."

So, that it was. The Yakuza took its payment in the form of two little girls. The world was just such a great place.

How could Signum explain to this girl that finding her sister, if she was still alive, was near to impossible? As equally impossible was taking revenge from the Yakuza?

Many people had told her that her own revenge road was near to impossible but she kept every day on that path.

"_I have to live,"_ the girl had said just plain and simply. And she could understand it. That was what had kept Signum waking up and breathing every day and second for the past fifteen years. She has to live to fulfill her aims and nothing else mattered aside that.

"Girl, what do you prefer? ..." Signum asked, "Let some fat and ugly bastard to fuck up you in ways you cannot start to imagine…Or blow those bastards´ head out with something like this?" by finishing the question, she raised her hand and deployed her big plasma gun to its whole extension.

The girl jumped on the chair and fear shined on her eyes for the first time.

Signum knew that it was not a fair question to ask. The girl could have answered that she didn´t want neither of those options but she knew the girl will not answer that. The world wasn´t a fair place and the girl already knew it. But there were a lot of other things the girl didn´t know.

"Kill them," she said after a while.

"I didn´t said the word 'kill' girl," Signum stated looking at her seriously. The girl blinked. "Killing is for humans or wild animals, if you really want to learn what I do, you will learn that it is more like taking care of the garbage than killing. And that it is not pleasant or rewarding…but someone has to do it."

After saying that, Signum kept silent, waiting. The girl didn´t understand yet, but eventually she will. It was a good thing that despite everything she went through she was sitting there having that conversation with her as if it was 'normal'.

But, what was normal those days?

The girl found out in the worst possible way that the illusion of safety and family could vanish in the air at any time to be replaced by a nightmare where she didn´t even own herself or the very air she breathe.

To learn that choice was an illusion.

"I…want to learn," she said at last.

Signum liked that the girl took her time to think, she saw all the emotions running and displaying on her face during those seconds and read them all as if the girl spoke them. It was fine. She would learn how to control and hide those emotions. She will in fact, learn.

"What´s is your name?" was Signum last question.

"Takamachi…Nanoha."

-X-

_**Corporate Building of Massive BioD.**_

"Are you happy now?" Precia asked Fate.

Mother and daughter were sitting at the costly and fashionable couch set her mother had on the main meeting room of Massive BioD. Precia hated tables and it was not tables there. Just elegant designer´s couches and chairs over an equally expensive carpet. She had a table on her private office just because Lindy liked to drink her tea there but they weren´t not at her private office.

And they were not alone.

Lindy Harlaown was sitting there on a couch as well and was not drinking tea, which was by itself a bad sign. Fate wanted to be anywhere else but there. Arf was sitting there as well but took good care to keep her mouth shut.

"You have met her."

Fate remained in silence.

"Precia," Lindy intervened in favor of her foster daughter smiling, "maybe we can do this in a reasonable way."

Precia and Lindy enchased their gazes. Precia was Fate´s biological mother but Lindy raised Fate as her own daughter when those terrible times stained their lives. Fate even had her last name. Technical, they both were Fate´s mothers and have the right to be there speaking with her even if Fate was a grown up twenty nine years old woman.

"You two should get married," Fate said, trying to divert the topic, "You would do a lovely couple."

Lindy smile at her daughter widened, "Oh, we have tried it my dear…It was great on bed but it didn´t work on the other important and critical subjects."

Precia huffed and Fate blushed never expecting that answer.

Lindy extended her hand and cherished Precia´s cheek and Fate´s blushing deepened even more._ "Oh Gosh, please don´t let them start fondling just now."_

"Lindy, we have more important subjects to discuss right now and you are not helping," Precia said but didn´t physically reject her friend caress.

"There is nothing to discuss mother," it was Fate´s turn to intervene; she wanted to finish that charade as soon as possible. "I have accepted the job from Admiral Crowbel and I will fulfill the request. Shari just called me. BLUE has started my background checking…deeply, even deeper than we expected; it´s too late to change my mind even if I would have wanted to."

Fate made a pause and continued.

"And I haven´t change my mind."

Precia turned to see Arf.

"Fate´s right," Arf explained answering Precia´s silent question. "Shari and Lucino are monitoring every searching on Fate Harlaown. According Lucino, BLUE has someone really skilled on the task and they have had to deepen Fate Harlaown background and practically, made Fate Testarossa Harlaown, disappear. It is good that she had been using just the T. for years."

"Could it be dangerous?" Precia asked then to Lindy.

"Shari and Lucino have help from our side, but Fate and Arf are right, it would be more risky to step back now. They will know that something was happening," Lindy took a deep breath; Precia would not like her next words. "As much as I don´t like it…Fate is inside now and the safest way is that she stays in."

Fate was already inside the wolf´s den and all knew that even if didn't say like that.

"In fact," Fate said choosing her words carefully, "There is only one reason I am here. BLUE knows Arf is a Replicant BioDevice and that belongs to Massive. Wolkenritter even told me that I should do business with Massive instead of BLUE," for her expression the other women noticed that the comment from BLUE CEO wasn´t funny for Fate at all, "So, I will need some truthful quotation from Massive BioD for Venturis request of proposal."

"Are you expecting us to participate in this…setting?" Precia frowned looking seriously at Fate.

"It´s too late mother, if I would have gone alone to the meeting with Wolkenritter this wouldn't had happened. Now I need a reason to be here now. They will know I am Lindy´s daughter, they will now that Lindy is your friend and that I have bonds with the army forces. It will justify me for having a Massive biod, but it will be suspicious if I don´t consider my mother´s best friend company in this tender."

Precia looked at Lindy. Her friend reciprocated the gaze. It was as if destiny were leading all of them to an unavoidable and long awaited crash. And they both knew it and knew it was nothing they could do about it.

"I have been invited to a party tonight were I will have my last chance to succeed with Wolkenritter and BLUE, mother. There is no turning back now," Fate noticed her mothers faces and knew she had won at least, this match. "I need that the hacker they have tracing me already has that information by the time I will meet Signum."

Precia hearth skipped a beat and studied her daughter carefully; she didn't like the way Fate said that woman´s name. She was trying to remain still and business-like but Precia knew her very well. Fate was excitedly expecting her meeting with the woman. And it was not the typical excitement she always had with her job.

Fate looked at Precia, thinking that her mother was still reluctant to participate and stood up looking ostentatiously at her watch. She had to stop by and buy the most stunning dress for that night. Signum Wolkenritter shall have to notice her either she wanted or not.

"So…I really have to go mother, I have a lot of things to do before…the meeting."

No one noticed any movement from Precia but the door of the meeting room opened and her executive assistant entered. Aside of Precia's assistant Amy Limietta was also Lindy´s daughter in law. Sometimes Fate hated that those women wanted to keep everything in family.

"Amy will provide everything you need," Precia said.

Fate arched her brows and smiled. _"I wish she could be always this easy!"_ she thought and after kissing her mothers, she left talking animatedly with Amy.

Precia interchanged a significant gaze with Arf before the redhead woman nodded and followed Fate.

Once the two women were left alone, Lindy was the first to speak.

"She is dying to see her again."

"Did you notice it too?" Precia said looking at her friend with sadness.

"Oh yes," Lindy said with an equally sad tone but avoid to tell her friend that the last time she saw Fate like that was too many years ago.

"What we do now?" Precia said crossing her arms on her chest and lowering her head.

"Pray?"

Precia laughed, "Should we pray that the bitch will not end killing Fate?"

Lindy wasn't laughing.

"No, we pray for Fate not falling in love with her."

-X-

_**New Sparta Bay.**_

"Are you sure she will come?"

Fate was on the verge of nervousness as she never remembered to had been before. She and Arf were standing up on the deck of the exclusive yacht belonging to the Banning´s family, where the most expected socialite event of the year was having place. After the effects of the climate change the past century, the war and the reconstruction, very large areas of what used to be City of Washington DC flooded, giving birth to a bay where now, the rich and wealthy keep luxurious ships and yachts. Like the one where they waiting for their meeting of the night.

"Of course I am sure!" a blonde woman replied to Fate´s question indignant.

Arisa Bannings was Fate´s friend from University and she managed to convince her friend to invite her to the exclusive party her family hosted every year on the yacht. Arisa always invited her but Fate always rejected. Socializing like that was never among her priorities so of course, when she addressed her friend with the request, Arisa wanted to know everything.

Only the serious gaze that Fate wore to tell her that was a 'job matter' was able to ease Arisa´s questions. Her family was wealthy and had business with the Defense Department, she knew about keeping reserved information. Fate also insisted that her friend always addressed her as 'Fate Harlaown' and had Lucino checking the Bannings guest list to be sure that no one attending will know her.

Fate knew it was risky, to mix her personal and work spaces but she didn´t have any other chance. That woman at BLUE, Hayate Yagami was also an Alisa´s friend that always attended that party and she told her that Signum will attend that night.

Hayate was literally setting up a trap for her boss and Fate still wondering why she was doing that.

Alisa, Fate and Arf were standing with a drink in hand since two hours ago and neither the so expected Signum Wolkenritter nor Hayate Yagami had showed up yet. Fate was about to drink another sip of her drink but stopped thinking that it was her third drink and she was exactly not a drinker; she didn´t want to be drunk when her target for the night appeared, if she ever did it.

Fate chose a red, close –fitting low neckline long dress with a very audacious aperture on the side leg and matching high heels. Her look was completed by a high hair dressing with long traces of golden hair falling free on the side of the face, framing it beautifully.

Alisa that knew Fate and her tastes almost died when looked openmouthed at her friend. Everybody else on the yacht deck noticed Fate as well.

Arf didn´t say a word when she accompanied Fate to choose the dress; the Replicant knew Fate was exposing herself as a prey for the predator in more ways than one. And what worried her was that Fate seemed to like it more that she should.

"Dammit," Fate cursed looking the time at her small device in her purse. It was close to midnight and it was no sight of Signum Wolkenritter.

"A beautiful woman should not curse like that. It doesn´t fit."

Fate´s hearth stopped at that very moment.

Raising her head slowly, she found those stunning and deep blue eyes that had been haunting her all the time since the previous day fixed on her. It was barely more than twenty four hours since she met Signum Wolkenritter for the first time and she was already starving for those eyes again.

And those mentioned eyes were fulfilling with the sight that Fate offered and she felt the heat spreading on her skin as if those eyes could physically touch her.

Signum, unlike other occasions, chose a dark blue trousers and jacket outfit with a black shirt unbuttoned almost to the level of her breasts and to Fate´s surprise her usually pink shaded hair was blonde but still held in a high pony tail. She was informally elegant…and beautiful. And looked a lot younger that the first time she meet her.

Fate knew she was staring at her but could not help herself.

"Miss Harlaown!" Hayate´s voice came up on her rescue, "what a nice surprise to meet you here!"

They already had that dialogue prepared. Hayate told Fate that her part would be to carry Signum to that party. Fate´s part would be convincing her that she was really interested in a deal with BLUE.

Fate was interested. She was probably too much interested.

"Miss Yagami," Fate said recovering the use of her voice while she was still having problems with thinking as Signum´s eyes kept roaming all over her. _"Well, the dress worked; maybe it worked too well," _

Signum just could not help herself. Since the very second she stepped at the yacht deck, that tall blonde woman in a red dress caught her eye like a magnet. She just walked towards Fate like pulled by an invisible force. And the need on her belly that she thought it was fully satisfied from last night, awakened with the fury of a storm when the crimson eyes met hers.

Hayate insisted endlessly since the morning that they had to attend that party; Robert Bannings, Alisa´s fathers was an important partner of BLUE and Signum had avoided all social engagements with them, Hayate claimed loudly that she needed help.

BLUE CEO was starting to understand why Hayate insisted so much.

After their master hacker, codenamed Ishikawa; sent them all he could find about Fate Harlaown, Hayate insisted that they should consider the business she was offering. Signum said she will consider it the next day and put a definitive end to their discussion. Now she knew with Hayate gave up that easily.

Aside of the facts that Ishikawa found about Fate Harlaown, what concerned Signum the most was the reaction that the woman caused on her. She had to resort on Serena's escort service to ease the hunger what meeting that woman caused her the previous day.

Then, her little foster sister literally dragged her to this party where 'casually,' they meet Fate Harlaown; Signum knew those coincidences didn´t exist and now, she knew that the heat burning inside her was an inexplicable but undeniable desire.

Hayate set her up and at that time, when the only image on her brain was Fate´s, it didn´t matter.

Ignoring everything and everyone around them, Fate and Signum just stared at each other.

The unavoidable gears of destiny were moving even if nobody could hear them.

-X-

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><p>Thanks for your comments and reviews.<p> 


	4. Deep Blue

Hi. Thanks to all that read this story and leave reviews. Special thanks to SapphoSensei. This chapter is for you. Because in some way you helped me to come back writing.

Aside on some personal complications, I will try to keep updating this fic on a more regular basis now. This fic has its Spanish counterpart which had moved ahead on the story (chapter 8) and I am basically translating and adjusting to English. So, be sure, this story will run to the end. And hopefully, it won´t take me forever to do so.

I apologize in advance for any mistake. I try to keep improving on my English writing but, I still have a lot of work to do on the subject. This story is not betaread by anyone but me so….probably it will have several mistakes. Thanks for your patience and Thanks for read and leave your comments.

**WARNING:** Please note, this Fic **Signum-Fate** and it is rated **M** for strong or violent content, strong language, sexual encounters between two females and other possible niceties. If this kind of content offends you in any way, if you are easily upset by explicit violent or sexual scenes or if you don´t have the age for reading M content, please don´t read.

**DISCLAIMER:** Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha´s characters belong to their authors. Plot from Aleksei Volken. I only own my imagination. All the characters and situations described in this fic are fictional. Any similarity with real people or situation is not intentional and is pure coincidental.

**Today´s Soundtrack:** "Almost Blue" by Chet Baker .

-X-

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><p><strong>The Blue Eyed Demon<strong> by Aleksei Volken

**CHAPTER 4. Deep Blue.**

-X-

_Love._

_As with choice, love is also an illusion that no longer exists. If it ever existed._

_In this…"modern world" everything is done by a price. Even love. There is always a price. We all have a price…Everyone. And always, someone comes that can pay it…or wants to pay it. _

_I learned that lesson very soon._

_My mother had a price._

_And many paid it…every night. Every single day._

_Yes, my mother was what we elegantly could call, "a prostitute." In a world where humans can have anything they want as long they can pay for it; someone like my mother, that never had too much, didn´t have that many alternatives either. And well, you know, the sad and ugly truth is that she was not really too expensive._

_She wasn´t a fancy and classy "meat" that a rich guy or woman could take and show ostentatiously as an expensive accessory, a dress or a car. No. My mother worked for another kind of customer._

_Her "customer base" had just a bit more luck than her; they hadn´t a job like hers and they could afford to pay for something like her. Yes, something. She was no more than something for them or for her employer._

_Among my first memories there is this interminable procession of "customers" that visited the small and dirty farthing where we lived. That filthy and dark dunghill where she always lived and from where she never came out._

_Some customers were nice with her, some others didn´t. _

_As the years have passed over those memories, I have got into the conclusion that those who were straight to business and fair with her were the best ones. Clean, with no compassion but also without mockery. Even when I first I didn´t get exactly what was happening, I could handle those customers._

_Then there were the others. _

_The ones that were really mean to her._

_But the worse of all of them was her "Boss." Her owner. the guy who "preside over" her. The bastard who took all her money, all her dignity and kept her hooked in a diversity of drugs that he provided to all the women he "protected." Later I knew all of those women were in similar or even worse, untenable conditions, than my mother._

_My life flew in a parade of identical days, one after another where the only difference, sometimes, were my mother´s customers. Despite that, I had the unexplainable certainty that I will have a different choice. I had the illusion that, at the end, I would be able to choose._

_Until that day came and everything changed as no one expected._

_I was nine years old and was coming back from one of those "rounds" that my mother made me take when she got a "tough" customer…and then, I saw him. _

_He was beating her wildly…as never before._

_It was very late in the afternoon, the heat was unbearable at the dunghill where we lived, with no trees, surrounded only trash and dust, the only little isles of shadow were provided by the gigantic piles of garbage and junk; the heat in air was asphyxiating. The day had been a hell on hearth and the night, closely following it, would be the same._

_Masashi was his name. He was a tall and robust guy, with Japanese heritage as he used to claim proudly. Under the skewed rays of a merciless sun, my mother laid on the dust as a bloody and dirty nubble while he kicked her on the belly even mercilessly._

_He´d must have been doing it since long time before I saw him, because he was breathing heavily, sweating like a pig; but despite that, he took renewed impulse to kick her one, and other and other time as if his fury was as endless and unavoidable like the heat. _

_Something happened to me that day, at that very moment. Something changed…permanently; something that shall not happen to a nine years old girl._

_I don´t know how I managed to control myself, but I didn´t run to them, to my mother in pain, to the man torturing her. As for now, I don´t know if I even felt the urge to run._

_I know that I slipped between the trash and the garbage always keeping an eye on him, until the place where he left his jacket, lying on top of discarded box so he could beat my mother more comfortably. Masashi, the guy who claimed to be a great lord of the underworld when he was only a cheap whore bastard, considered that dunghill were we all live, his empire. Two things were his most precious possessions, the symbols of "his status"…his jacket and his guns. More than anything, he valued those stupid, old guns. No delinquent would ever use a pistol like those, but I knew that only few time later. But for him, that didn´t matter. He was a damn fucking bastard that lived at the expense of miserable women... Like my mother. He had no more aspiration than that. His ridicule guns where only matched with those ridicule aspirations. _

_He deserved to die with them._

_Something should have warned him because he stopped suddenly in the middle of the next kick he was preparing for my mother and looked at me, straight in the eye. I didn´t have any more time. I took the gun with two hands in front of me, pointed to his chest and pulled the trigger._

_He knew it was me._

_In the fractions before the heavy kick of the old gun made me raise my arms resulting in a shoot that blew half of this face and brain, he saw me in the eyes and knew. The sight on his eyes went to surprise to anger to emptiness…to death._

_His body convulsed a bit until it laid, inertly, by my mother side._

_My next clear memory is having my mother in my arms. _

_The gun shoot alerted Masashi´s men that rushed to where I was, where we were. I knew my mother was dead. I think I knew her since the very first time I saw her being beating by him under the sun. Probably she was always dead. I knew I couldn't do anything for her, that I never could. But I couldn´t leave her; I couldn´t move. The wild part of my brain was screaming me to stand up and run for my life, the fastest I could. But some other part of me, simply couldn´t move. Didn´t want to move._

_Masashi´s men finally reached and they couldn´t believe what was in front of their eyes._

_I was sure that soon enough my indecision about running or not would be irrelevant…because I will be as dead as my mother was._

_But it was not like that._

_It wasn´t my choice; I shall say._

_Masashi´s men didn´t come alone. He, as all of us, was also a whore; he had a price, He sold himself for money and he also, had a boss._

_Masashi´s boss showed up on the scene and if he was asking what time of the day, just cool and calm, he asked what the hell was happening there. _

_Then, I finally knew that Masashi´s fury was triggered by my mother announcing him that she was pregnant…again. _

_Masashi´s boss knew then that I was the daughter of the human remains that laid on his feet._

_And that everything indicated that I killed Masashi._

_Masashi´s men wanted to kick me dead…just as my mother._

_But it wasn´t their choice either._

_For a reason that I only understood many, many years later, the Boss didn´t allow that._

_The "Boss" was a very tall man…well, I should say REALLY TALL guy, brunet but with a hair so blonde that it was white; his face was hard, sharp…impenetrable; his whole body was strong and heavy. From where I was, kneeling on the dust like a caged animal, he was like an almighty and indestructible giant._

"_She has potential," was his only comment at that time._

_A bit after that, I knew he was a Russian, straight forward and a man of few words._

_Thirty years after that moment when The Boss spared my life, I am alive and I rule my own empire. Neither of those two have been my decisions, but at least, I can say that my empire is not alike my mother´s boss´ empire. _

_I have a price, like him nonetheless; a price that few…very few people, can pay. Or want to pay. _

_In fact, only one person can._

_The Boss, that Russian, very straight forward man of few words; he has been dead since many years ago._

_That was not his choice, or mine._

_Someone else took that decision for us._

_We all have a price. Even he had one._

_But he was right about something._

_I had potential._

_-X-_

_**Earth, Year 2161 A.D. from Old Gregorian Calendar - Year 99 of Modern Perpetual Solar Calendar, City of New Sparta, Main Capital of the Americas (former City of Washington D.C.) **_

"Then…you meet before already?" Arisa Banning asked abruptly, the Banning´s heiress and host of the party was slightly upset of being ignored so flagrantly on her own show. The blonde looked alternatively to Signum and Fate as if demanding an explanation.

Fate blushed and turned to as least provide some answer to her friend.

"Eh…Miss…Wolkenritter and I met… yesterday…." Fate explained as naturally as possible.

For her fortune, Hayate seemed very satisfied with her recently accomplished task and went into Fate´s rescue smiling broadly.

"Maybe BLUE can close some interesting business with Miss Harlaown," Hayate explained taking Arisa by the arm while speaking, "If certain persons can reach some level of understanding on some basic topics."

Then, after looking around she looked Arisa with begging eyes, "I am dying for a drink…can you join me with something fresh and….funny?

Just by saying that, Hayate already had Arisa walking far away of Signum and Fate.

Since the very moment Signum showed up at the yatch deck, Arf took a safe distance sipping her drink in a way she could see Fate with Signum and pretend to watch at the New Sparta´s skylne at the same time.

Signum and Fate were finally alone for the first time.

All the "alone" one can be in a classy party on board a luxury yacht, full of celebrities and New Sparta socialites'. A lot of them, men and women, looked at Signum and Fate with a mixture of curiosity, envy, even lust, but nobody dared to get closer.

After some seconds of silence, Fate realized she hadn´t say anything and her throat went dry with nervousness. She prepared dozens of dialogs and speeches, several scenarios were portrayed in her mind in preparation for that encounter, but then…her mind was empty. A big and complete blank.

And Signum wasn´t helping her at all.

The magnate was just looking at Fate with a slight tint of a smile in her blue eyes. She didn´t look tense or uncomfortable. She was quietly waiting in silence, like the predator that knows its prey has nowhere to run.

"The way you leave yesterday was not exactly….polite," Fate said with a voice tinged of challenge before she could stop herself. The blonde wanted to kick herself almost immediately after. Among all the option she practiced, that was not included and wasn´t definitely the best way to start with Wolkenritter.

Signum just arched her brow slightly at the comment and walked, very slowly, getting closer to Fate.

Fate swallowed and fought the urge to step back.

"I think I made my point very clear," Signum said plainly. Her face was serious, relaxed but serious. The blue in her eyes was deep and inscrutable and Fate felt lost in that abyss.

Fate accepted the loss of the first round and breathing deeply, tried to relax in preparation for the next one.

Smiling, she went for it. "It seems that we just cannot start with the right foot, isn´t?"

Signum´s piercing gaze caught Fate while answering in a husky whisper, "What do you expect to start….Miss Harlaown?"

Fate felt that the questions had a lot more implications than the ones on the surface and she didn´t want to think in them. Not there at least. Because, really, what was she intending chasing a dangerous woman like Signum in the way she was? She didn´t know.

But not knowing was not going to stop her from her task.

"A business relationship, that I expect, can be productive for both sides," Fate explained smiling with her best business tone.

"Have you had problems with your security biod? I have heard some complaints on models from my competitors," Signum asked in a similar mood, adding with some mockery, "Since the very moment I arrived, she hasn´t lost sight on me but that detail can be deceitful about her efficiency."

Fate smile didn´t faint and she didn´t bite the bait, Signum was not driving her mad this time.

"Oh, Arf is very efficient, I have to say. My reasons to have her are really more personal than business," Fate said.

Without saying a word in response, Signum only arched a brow in a gesture that Fate was finding really irksome. What bothered Fate the most about it was that she found it, at the same time VERY attractive.

Fate knew Signum was waiting for an explanation but wouldn't ever acknowledge it.

"My mother and Massive BioD CEO are very good friends. Longtime friends, actually,- Fate explained trying not to think about Lindy´s implications regarding that she and Precia were more than good friends, "Precia Testarossa insisted that I should have Arf on charge or my personal safety. That has nothing to do with the business I have in place now."

Fate referred to her biological mother as indifferently as she could. She wasn´t lying about it. Her relationship with Precia was distant.

At Precia´s name, Signum´s Fate turned into stone and her eyes paled to an icy blue. Any kindness, vanished from her face as if it never existed and she broke the visual link with Fate for the first time that night.

Fate, noticing her reaction, changed the subject subtlety but quickly. "That´s interesting," Fate thought make a note about the mutual animadversion between the two women. The loathing seemed to be deeper in the BLUE CEO. IF her mother and Lindy knew about it, they didn´t mention it. Fate wondered if they really didn´t know and the reasons they could have for not telling her some that relevant.

"But it is not about my personal choices that I would like to talk with you. I would rather prefer that we could find a common ground to talk about business…Signum," Fate felt a shiver running down her spine by hearing her own voice saying her name. Signum.

Hearing her name in Fate´s voice made Signum turn to look at the blonde again but the aloofness was still there hardening her features. Hear the name she hated the most almost got Signum losing control but she was able to handle herself on time. It was not the time to take care of Precia Testarossa…yet. Massive Biod´s CEO will have her whole attention on day, soon, but then, it was the time to handle other business.

The businesses that girl was so conveniently presenting to her.

Despite the attraction she could feel towards Fate Harlaown, Signum wasn´t blind and wasn´t bewildered like Hayate; the way Fate Harlaown showed up in their lives, looking to close a big deal with BLUE was highly suspicious. Someone or something aside Venturis government could be behind the beautiful woman. "Who" was the question interested Signum the most at the moment, more even than "Why." In her line of work, "why" was generally related to blood and death.

Signum decided to try the waters and see what the blonde had for her.

"Your mother shall be a very influent woman to have Precia Testarossa a close, longtime friend," Signum said.

It was not a question but Fate knew whatever happened after that point depended on how she answered that challenge.

And she knew how to turn that disadvantage into an advantage. With the truth. Just not all the truth.

"My mother is an Admiral with the Navy, as my father was and my brother is," Fate said smiling shyly which happened every time she talked about her foster family, "My whole family, I should say, is part of the Navy, some way…Well, that why she and Mrs. Testarossa got to know each other and have been friends like…forever."

Fate´s smile was truthful when talked about her family and the two women that were her mothers. What she will not say was that Lindy and the Harlaown were her foster family. But everything she said about them and her feelings towards them were truth.

Signum kept her face still but internally was taken by surprise. Her star "hacker" Ishikawa said exactly that in his report about Fate Harlaown. And Ishikawa was truly hard to deceive. Fate Harlaown´s family was all related to the Americas Navy. Fate herself, had worked to the Armada. Signum expected a lie, many lies, she expected anything but the truth in that open and transparent way.

"Having a business deal with BLUE will no cause some sort of family disturbs?" Signum asked suddenly serious. Her tone was hundred percent businesses this time.

Fate took it seriously as well. For the first time, they were really talking and she wanted to move ahead on her task. That was an opportunity she was missing.

"Aside of my personal relationship with Mrs. Testarossa, I have requested a formal proposal to several companied for this bid. Massive BioD in among the option I evaluated as BLUE. I am not considering Mrs. Testarossa as a personal acquaintance. I take my job very seriously Miss Wolkenritter and in order to do so, I have personally evaluated hundreds of combat biodevices and not only those produced by your company or Massive BioD."

Signum smiled again slightly. That same piece of information was part of Ishikawa´s report. Signum ordered Carim and Hayate to keep Fate Harlaown under a strict surveillance. According to Ishikawa, Venturis government was evaluating companies for combat biodevices and multiples other supplies. Ishikawa even got the report Fate Harlaown presented that afternoon stating she was still in negotiating phase with BLUE and requested more time before a final selection.

Then, again, Fate Harlaown told her the truth.

"_Why?"_ Signum thought looking af Fate´s eyes. If the request was truthful, Fate Harlaown could go with it without considering BLUE anymore. Signum would have been very happy to not having to see her anymore.

But the woman kept trying.

Signum decided to change her strategy and explorer other aspects of the ground in front of her.

"You have to make a decision soon Miss Harlaown. Will you call me Signum or Miss Wolkenritter? I would rather prefer that you chose one and stick with it," Signum requested in a low, throaty voice.

Fate felt a violent blush coloring her cheeks and the certainty that Signum will noticed it, only increased it.

Signum noticed Fate´s embarrassment clearly, the blonde woman was so ablush and flustered that her reaction could only be real. It happened to her the same way at her office the previous day. Aside of the business, Fate Harlaown was personally affected by her. And it was not a fake. Signum tightened her fists at the thought because despite her iron control, Fate affected HER equally.

The attraction was mutual regardless they acknowledging it or not.

It was so long since Signum felt an attraction alike that she didn´t even know how to handle it.

"_Why? Why she feels attracted for me? She has said the truth. Twice. Her sincerity has been as clear as her embarrassment but, how can I be sure she is not lying? I would have known having Ishikawa report´s if she lied; I could know how she look when she lies but now…I can only assume by now that what I see, is the truth."_

And Signum conclusion was that both of them, the answer and the attraction were truth,

The conclusion triggered all the alarms in Signum´s head. Her highly advanced self-preservation instinct was saying to get as far possible of that woman as she could but something even more powerful kept pulling her towards Fate. She had to know. Why Fate Harlaown was so interested in BLUE? Who was Fate Harlaown? And more important: Why was she so interested in her?

Signum stared at Fate looking at her purposely.

"If you already have a proposal from Massive BioD, why you keep insisting with BLUE?"

Fate who just regained control after Signum unexpected comment, knew the woman was testing her in every possible way; she was expecting that. But never expected she will react like that. She breathed heavily trying to release the tension, which was, as everything Signum had made her feel that night, very truthful.

"Don´t you think this is starting to look like an interrogatory?" Fate asked a little defiantly, challenged by the other dare, "Do you treat all your potential customers like this or just me for some particular reason?"

At that time, one of the very professional waitresses serving the attendees that night got closer with a tray full of glittering cups. Signum took one with a perfect, controlled gesture and looked at Fate. The blonde, on her side, looked at the tray a bit indecisive. She arrived at the party a bit earlier and waiting for Signum to show up took already three of those fine champagne glasses. Fate was generally good in everything sue did and was a woman full of skills, however drinking wasn´t among them.

But Signum was so obviously waiting for Fate that she extended threw all her reservations and took another cup.

Signum then surprised with her next comment.

"You are right," she said but no apologize came following that phrase. Signum didn´t apologize for her behavior the previous day during their unsuccessful meeting in BLUE

Fate realized that her conversation that night seemed to flow in several levels; the superficial one, the level of all the words that they speak, and another, deeper one. The level of silence, of all those things they were not saying. A level for the words and another for the piercing gazes; a level for their minds to battle and another one, where their bodies were screaming to each other under the calm exterior.

In a sudden outburst, Fate raised her cup and offered, "Can we make a toast for a truce and try to talk about business properly?"

Signum had a flash of another toast the night before and what happen after with those beautiful women; then a vivid image of Fate Harlaown in the intimacy arching her back to her spread all over Signum´s mind causing her almost crush the glass in her hand.

"We haven´t made any kind of war declaration…. Miss Harlaown," Signum said tensely, looking at Fate so intensely that the later felt as if those eyes could sweep away all her defenses.

"What do you think if we leave that in Fate….and Signum?" Fate said cautiously, her heart racing as a horse. Be adventurous with someone like Signum Wolkenritter wasn´t either among her skills.

Signum just got closer to Fate and raised her cup but didn´t touch the other. Fate was completely sure her heartbeat could be heard three feet around her. She had been that close of Signum as in that very moment.

High heels shoes put Fate´s eyes at the same high as Signum´s who wasn´t wearing heels that night. Signum couldn´t hear Fate´s heartbeat nonetheless, but the wonderful neckline of her dress gave a clear sight of a vein beating wildly causing a violent rush of unexpected and pure desire.

Fate, unaware of the effect she was provoking, rubbed her cup slightly with Signum´s.

Her gazes looked and everything around vanished as if the time suddenly stop and in that space nothing else could exists but their connection.

The Banning´s yacht was huge, lavish, enlightened with probably hundreds lights to provide the most exclusive atmosphere for the most exclusive of the New Spartan society. There were gathered politicians, businesses men and women, some naturally beautiful specimens from the artistic arena and several escort biods equally exclusive to match their master's needs in safety and pleasure.

The crow was chattering, flirting, hunting….seeing and being seen in the most exclusive event of the season, a band was playing since long time ago a soft and warm rhythm, metals and piano playing together in an old wavy jazz and several couples slide around following the music.

But Fate and Signum noticed nothing of it.

Until a handsome and young blonde man, neatly wearing a gala Navy uniform dared to ask for the third time if he could have the honor of Fate dancing with him.

Blinking a bit disconcerted, Fate realized that the young man looked familiar but whoever he was, the guy picked the worst timing ever to ask…anything.

"No."

Both Fate and the young man turned equally surprised to look at Signum, who was the one that denied vehemently the man´s request before Fate could say a word to accept or decline.

"Why?" the young man asked with his voice stuttering a little. He probably knew who Fate was, but he definitely didn´t have the close idea who was Fate companion.

AS a response, Signum took her cup and Fate´s, handing them with authority to the amazed boy and who had no other option than take them. After that, without a second gaze towards the boy, Signum took Fate´s hand and walked towards the dancing area, joining the other couples there.

Fate was still deciding if she should protest, deny or say anything but before to decided which one was the appropriated, she found herself firmly held by the wait and with her hands in Signum´s shoulders. Their bodies' weren´t touching but Fate could feel an electrical stream flowing between them.

"Seems this is the only way we could keep talking…without interruptions, I mean," Signum explained plainly.

For few seconds Fate didn´t say a word. Signum was being very respectful and she was an adult woman who cannot behave as an impressionable teenager. Fate repeated that in her mind more than couple more times, "I am ADULT, I am a professional….and I HAVE a mission."

But exactly at the same time, she felt like trembling and melting there in Signum´s arms feeling an undeniable rush of desire running down her body.

Fate managed to put a bit more distance between them and tried to focus on her task, "I see…You are probably right, I haven´t answer your question yet….And since it seem quite important for you, I will. Do you want to know why we are so interested in BLUE biodevices?"

Signum suppressed the sudden impulse to silence Fate. It was a naïve wish. Fate Harlaown had to answer that among other things.

Fate took Signum´s silence as acceptance of her offer and continued.

"BLUE is specialized in combat biodevices, like no other. You can say there are other firms in the same area," Fate hurried to say seeing Signum´s brow arching slightly, "But you KNOW that BLUE is the best."

Fate didn´t wait for a reply, she was on the top of the wave and had to ride it to the end.

"I don´t want…or need, a cheap unit. We really require to buy the highest technology in combat biodevices…Aside of the plain units, we also need a multiannual agreement with response time, guarantees, special support….a full package of regular services and….special services and supplies."

The expert in Signum´s brain was registering the information even if other part of her body were flustered with Fate´s scent and warm.

The response of that well trained brain was automatic and direct. Merciless.

"IRAs…..Immediate Response Armed Brigades….You want ´Cleaners,' right?"

And with that, Signum just stop dancing.

The two women looked at each other.

After the "Armageddon War," with the world being restructured into a "New Order" and the birth of the continental country of the United Americas, one single capital was not enough to administrate the vast territory of almost seventeen millions of square miles. From Pole to pole, the United Americas was finally the largest continent country in the world. New Sparta, the former city of Washington, was and seemed if forever will be, the first city of the Americas no matter what catastrophe could happen. It was the indisputable "Queen" of the northern hemisphere. But…was not enough for a territory like that. Some kind of power icon was strictly necessary in the far south to provide the sense of unity, continuity and freedom…and to remind everyone where the real power really resided.

That way, the Second Capital of the Americas was born: Venturis using as basement the former ideal city, Brasilia.

No one put too much objection to that. Since long time ago nationalism and borders lost the meaning once held. People only cared for surviving. They will accept whoever could guarantee at least that.

Venturis ruled, under New Sparta strict policies, over the whole South Hemisphere.

And they, as everybody else in the world, had their sort of problems to deal with. The main problem was the vast and diverse territory, and the cultural diversification of the millions of people that still survived there. The majority lived "registered" lives on the main cities of the region. Hey were the ones that accepted the regime and submitted their will to it. The main database of the Americas decided when, where and how everybody born and die for the country.

But then, there were the others, all of those persons that never accepted the establishment. Those who didn´t exist in the database: The "unregistered."

A person in the modern world could be a good or a bad guy. A wealthy one or a stray one. But one cannot be an "unregistered." In a world where each and every existence had a position to maintain the structure, the unregistered just don´t exist.

And then, they could be "cleaned up."

Signum knew the next second Fate described their requirements that what Venturis wanted, was "cleaners." Combat BIODs were the most efficient way to build the Immediate Response Armed brigades. In Asia and Africa the use of such Brigades was extensive for different purposes, Signum knew it quite well. But the Americas was keeping the façade quite well with their Armies. Until then.

Other thing Signum also knew was that selling Biodevices was not the only business. Biodevices by themselves didn´t solve the problems. The brigades needed weapons, diverse resources and supplies and most of the times, "special services" that border legality or, in several cases, were completely illegal.

But that was the way the world worked.

That it always worked.

The great and efficient machine of war needed weapons, technology, transportation, money, information and secrets aside of blood and pain to keep existing.

Inside her, Signum felt disappointed.

"_So, this is the reason?...You think you 'know' my true business line and that´s why you keep insisting with BLUE?"_ Signum thought in silence while looking deeply at Fate.

Fate couldn´t read Signum´s mind but could see the sudden veil of sadness in her eyes.

"Brigades….yes…." Fate said getting closer to Signum instinctively, feeling Signum was some way, getting away from her, "But not for what you are thinking for!"

"Now you know what I think Harlaown?" Despite calling for her last name, Fate noted with surprise that for the first time, Signum didn´t call her 'Miss.'

Then Fate looked around them. The party kept going as if nothing happened. No one disturbed them while they were talking but considering they were in the dance floor without dancing… several pair of eyes were fixed of them. Including Arf´s, who was no longer pretending drink something or watch the bay. The BIOD was at the border of the dance floor watchful and ready to jump.

At that very moment, Fate noticed how close she was from Signum and that they stopped moving with the music but they didn´t released each other. Signum had her both of her hands a little below of Fate´s waist, as if deciding to go farther in her hips. And Fate's hands were literally grasping the fabric in Signum´s shoulders.

Fate blushed for umpteenth time that night at the thought that their conversation probably didn´t seemed like a very normal one to the people watching them.

"I think we are moving too fast in this conversation and this is not the appropriate place for it," Fate said gaining control over her and looking back at Signum, "Venturis is very interested in doing business with BLUE and I think we should continue this conversation in private.

Signum could agree more. But before moving ahead it was something she had to confirm.

Looking at Fate straight to the eye, hard and direct like an arrow, Signum asked "What is the true reason YOU are so interested in BLUE?"

Fate felt trapped for that deep blue gaze on her.

"I think we should talk about that in private and…"

"No," Signum cut and Fate saw how the blue in her eyes paled dangerously, as if the surface of lake got suddenly freezing, "Here and Now….or we won´t have any other conversation."

Fate knew that was the crucial moment. It will the then or never. And she will fail in her mission.

And she probably will never see Signum again.

Fate didn't know which one of those reasons weighted more on her.

Calming down on the best she could, Fate gave her shoot, "This is and will be, a risky business….Signum, One that requires the…ability….to take risky decisions on the right place and in the right time or everything can be compromised. There are no many persons around that can do that. There are not many companies either, that can handle the production challenge we have in hands. According the research I have done, BLUE is probably the only company that could. And… I also understand….that you are one of the few persons in the world that have the…expertise… to take the kind of 'tough' decisions to handle the risky ramifications this deal might require."

"Wow," Signum thought staring at Fate, "How considered on her to call 'expertise' to my particular background in illegalities."

Despite her internal sarcasm, Signum had to acknowledge that Fate, again, seemed to be telling her the truth. She expected Fate to elaborate in some complicated reason but the blonde, regardless her politeness, told exactly the reason Signum was not expecting.

This was no different than any other negotiation she had done in the past with foreign government looking for weapons, financing, secrets or 'expertise.' They looked for her to do the dirty job while they remaining pure and untarnished. They looked at her for whom and what she was.

Ate was no different.

Why then something ached in her chest?

"Do you really know what are you getting yourself into?" Signum asked out of the blue, getting even closer to Fate while looking at her.

Fate was fascinated, looked by the changes in those eyes that were again dark blue, deep and relentless.

Their breasts were only a millimeter apart.

Arf was already inside the dance floor ready to jump over Signum.

"No…" Fate answered in a whisper surprising Signum with the honesty in the voice and her eyes, "But I won´t let that to stop me."

Signum didn´t say a word for several seconds. Just stared at Fate eyes and lips that were so close that just with by leaning slightly, she could kiss her passionately.

"Let´s get out of here," Signum said taking Fate´s arm and drag her out the deck.

The initial intent last two steps only before Arf blocked their way out.

"Fate…what the hell…"

Signum stopped but before she could say or do anything, Fate intervened with the security biod and friend.

"No, Arf….is okay," in an unconscious movement, Fate got closer to Signum while resting her other hand assuredly in her arm, Arf arched a brow at the intimate and protective gesture, "I am going out with Signum for a while, we need to discuss some topics….Don´t worry, I will make my way home."

"What?!...Are you…..?" Arf controlled herself before voicing the word 'insane,' "No way….besides, where are you going? You cannot wander around at this time at night with absolutely no security….and…"

"Arf," Fate cut firmly, staring at Arf, "I am leaving."

"Is everything ok?" Arisa Bannings asked getting into the discussion. Hayate had kept the party host quite busy but Arisa never lost complete sight of her friend, "Are you leaving?"

"Oh yes, everything fine Arisa" Fate answer smiling confidently keeping her grasp on Signum´s arm, "Arf is doing storm from nothing. I was just telling her not to worry about me. Nothing will happen if she is not by my side some minutes."

"So…you are leaving…." Arisa asked again a bit skeptically looking at the two women in front of her.

Fate then understood what her friend was implying by her leaving and blushed furiously which only made her look even guiltier.

"Yes….erh….you´ll see….Signum and I have….to discuss some important issues regarding a BUSINESS negotiation…. "

Arise looked at Fate considering if her friend had fever of something.

"Fate…it´s two am in the morning…you know?"

"Oh my goodness….it is almost 6 am in Venturis and we need to send some information to the office before they start operations... Thank you very much for such a great time Arisa, we have no time to waste, really…Please excuse us…"

With that said, if was Fate´s turn for dragging Signum out of the party, the business woman only smiled politely to everyone and followed Fate, never releasing the blonde´s hand.

Arf held her fury and thought on a Plan B. Fate had a tracking device all the time so she will always knew where she was but considering Fate´s companion, that was not enough for Arf. Activating a small communication device, she sent a quick message to Admiral Lindy about the situation. Precia gave her precise instructions about what to do in several scenarios….but Fate leaving alone with Wolkenritter was none of the considered.

Arisa was still in shock. Fate never ever "leaves" with someone "that" way.

"Wow, that was really fast," Hayate said smiling on Arisa´s side, "Can we have something else to drink?"

-X-

As they were getting far and afar away of the yacht, the sounds and lights of the party were dimming into silence and darkness. Soon, only their steps over the concrete were the only sounds surrounding them.

And Fate was suddenly very conscious of how close they were, of their intertwined hands and that they were finally, truly, alone with each other.

"Where are we going?" Fate asked without looking at Signum or stopping the pace.

When Signum asked if she knew what she was getting into and their gaze looked, Fate answered from the very bottom of her hearth…not really thinking on the answer. And when Signum asked her to leave with her, Fate really wanted to. But in the current moment when her mind was starting to work again, she realized she had no idea to where Signum wanted to take her. Or for what.

Tacitly, she had accepted to go anywhere Signum wanted to take her and even when Fate assured Arf that it was no reason to be concerned of, she knew better.

What she was doing was dangerous.

She knew it.

But she could not stop.

"Your security BIOD did a great job making sure everybody in that party noticed you were leaving with me," Signum said leaving Fate´s question unanswered. "They might not know where we are going but they must very sure about _what_ we will be doing."

Fate stopped then and turned to look at Signum.

"You said we should get out of there," Fate said a bit upset.

"But you didn´t asked to where…." Signum replied with that annoying self-confidence and a smile dancing in her lips, "Doesn´t matter to you that all those wealthy people is thinking that you will spend the rest of the night….with me?'"

Fate ran speechless and blushed furiously once again.

"You….I…..I mean….we don´t…."

"Yes, you and me," Signum said, "I asked if you knew what you were getting into and you said no, but that was not going to stop you."

Fate remained silent.

There, in the middle of the darkness, all the start that were not visible at the yacht deck due the brilliant lights, shone wildly, cold and distant. Many of them probably don´t even exist anymore but there light was there, being seeing light-years away as a testimony of their existence.

The gears of destiny never stopped its movement.

In that very moment, the realization hit Fate looking at the woman at her side. That was not only a work case. Probably never was.

The Navy asked her to investigate about Signum Wolkenritter to the deep end. A woman that the days before seemed as distant and far away as those stars. The asked her to find proof of BLUE and Wolkenritter illegal activities. She had to find all the evidence and provide the arguments to prove what no one had been able to accomplish before. Fate had to get that star and down it back to earth. Fate accepted the task eagerly and conceived the best plan to succeed with that task.

What better bait for a predator than a living, breathing, prey?

Venturis, as many other important cities in that modern and violent world, was real. It´s needs, were real. The project, was real. Everyone in the top government's level knew about the relationship between combat BIODs and weapon distribution. There were plenty of manufacturers of both. All al those, as BLUE, were well renowned and respected. All of them were very legal and corporate.

However, dealers, expert distributors that could position the products in the right place and the right hands by any means necessary, were very few.

The classy corporate world wallowed frequently with the underground world but it was only one undeniable queen that mastered the joint of the two worlds: Signum Wolkenritter.

Fate foresaw all the angles of the case and decided that Venturis condition was the best option. The Navy put all its resources to help her.

The trap was set.

But she didn´t foresee that she was going to feel the way she felt.

She never foresaw that she was going to wish, fervently, to know the real person behind the woman she had to hunt.

"It´s true," Fate said finally, "I said that. I don´t know what I am getting into."

"And yet….you came with me?"

"Yes," Fate answered with new decision, not only to Signum but to herself as well, "I don´t care what the other people might think about me and you but you better hear this Signum Wolkenritter….I am not going to bed with you just to close a deal with BLUE."

And Fate wished with all her heart that that was true.

Signum looked back at Fate for several seconds and then laughed softly; the sigh on her eyes softened in a way Fate had never saw in all the images she had from her. Her laugh was harsh and throaty, like a sound that was not used frequently enough but strangely, happy.

All the tension getting held between them was released with that sound.

"That´s very….regrettable, Harlaown" Signum said still smiling, letting her eyes to run over Fate in that way that made the blonde tremble.

Then, Signum lead the way to keep walking again.

"So…where are we going?" Fate asked again but lighthearted this time. Suddenly, she felt safe as never before in her life.

Signum was still considering it.

Any of the house that worked as their professional facades around the city will fulfill the purpose of the meeting. O even, one of the multiple restaurants where she handled some other collateral meetings like this one. She owned a couple of them were the staff was trained to handle any incidental situation.

Signum never took the lateral negotiations to BLUE corporate offices. Never. Not even if the subject of negotiation were BLUE assest or products. Fate could be a government representative but not everything she was going to ask from her migth fall into the strict legal framework.

Despite all that, Signum said the words.

"We will go to BLUE."

Fate tried her best to hide her surprise. That was not what she was expecting either.

"At this time?'" she asked to disguise the surprise she was feeling.

"I can get in at any time," Signum asked with that self-sufficiency smile that Fate hated and loved at the same time.

Fate was still trying something to say when the same tall and brunet guy that she met the day before showed up in front on them. Behind the guy, an elegant black vehicle, waited.

"We are heading to BLUE, Zafira" Signum said a grabbed Fate´s arm to lead her inside the car but she didn´t move.

"Thanks," Fate said, "But I really prefer to go with on my own car. That way I can go directly to home after our conversation."

"We can drive you back to grab it," Signum replied suddenly serious, her hand didn´t release Fate´s one despite the blonde´s request.

But Fate didn´t gave in.

She needed time. And space. Time to calm down and think. Space to recover from Signum´s closeness and warmth. Drive will help her to clear her mind and focus on her target a lot more than sit, on the darky interior of a luxury vehicle side by side with a woman like Signum Wolkenritter.

Aside of that fact, Fate was sure Signum´s vehicle will have multiple layers of armor and tracking blockers. Her own tracking device will be useless inside that. Losing Fate´s signal will drive Arf´s crazy and she didn´t want to start imaging what Arf´s could do in that scenario. Certainly, she didn´t need even more complications than those she already had.

"I really prefer to drive myself," Fate insisted, "You guys can go ahead and I will follow you closely. Besides, I know where BLUE is, I was there yesterday, remember?

As Signum didn´t respond and just stared at Fate with a deep frown, Fate added with her best smile, "I am not running away, you know? I already told it, twice….I am not going to stop."

That could mean nothing or everything but Signum relaxed a bit.

"Where is your vehicle?" the magnate asked.

After Fate signaled her modest but elegant red sedan, what she could not denied was that Signum walked her right to her vehicle´s door while Zafira waited for her with her car turned on and ready. The two vehicles weren´t that far apart but nonetheless, Zafira drove slowly to get even closer.

Once they reached her car, Fate watched how Signum finally let her hand go to take a small device from her jacket. It was a small handheld scanner that she used to scan Fate´s vehicle and get the car id number. In the same way persons were perfectly identified with a unique code, all vehicles were also registered. Anyone could scan a vehicle and get their data. It was not the same with persons. Only the military forces or the police officers had the authorization to scan people. The BIODs didn´t have the same privileges. Even when considered organic devices and many organizations fight for civil and full rights for them as humans, they still could be scanned as any vehicle or animal was. Exactly as Signum´s personnel did with Arf at BLUE building the day before.

After getting Fate´s vehicle info, Signum approached Fate who was patiently waiting in the front of the car.

"Follow us closely," Signum instructed, still relaxed but serious, "I will send your vehicle´s information to my security office so they will let you in by the same entrance I will use."

Those were good news for Fate. Getting in with the company CEO had its advantages. At least she won´t have to endure the same annoying process than the previous day.

"Awesome," Fate said looking at Signum and smiling broadly, truly happy for the first time in days. From where she was standing, Fate raised her hand and deactivated her car´s security system with her mobile.

Less than a second after, Fate suddenly felt herself violently pushed away and burnt up with the heat of a volcano.

-X-

From the Banning´s yacht´s deck, all the party attendees felt first a strong vibration and then, heard the wild roar of an explosion. A dense column of black smoke could be seen ascending on the nightly sky.

Several alarms and warnings added to the chaos and bewilderment that everybody were experimenting.

"An explosion!?...Was that an explosion!?..."

"Oh my god! …Something burst out there!...There! There! Can you see it?!..."

"What is happening?!

Even when the yacht was not affected by the blast, many persons were in panic and the all the others were contributing to the general massive hysteria.

Arf jumped out into the darkness way before the chaos started, looking desperately for Fate.

-X-

* * *

><p>Thanks to all of you following this story. I will do my best to keep on with the job. Thanks for your comments and reviews.<p>

Just in case some is following the soundtracks, the song Fate and Signum dance, it's our today´s soundtrack.


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